Current developments in trade union elections

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In Spain, the number of representatives obtained in workforce elections is the key factor determining the legitimacy of trade unions in representing workers for the purposes of collective bargaining and employee participation. The unions' memberhip figures play only a secondary role. We review trends in the union elections since 1978, and focus on the results of the 1998 elections, which confirmed the predominance of the CC.OO and UGT confederations, withe the former in the leading position.

It is the level of a trade union's membership that is generally considered to be the measure of its capacity to participate legitimately in an industrial relations system. Nevertheless, the conjunction of a particular set of circumstances and problems during a specific historical period in Spain helped to establish support in elections of workforce representatives by employees, rather than membership, as the key indicator for demonstrating trade unions' representativeness. Various factors contributed to this development. The political transition to democracy in the mid-1970s and its consolidation happened to coincide with a major economic crisis. The main trade unions were historically linked to the main left-wing political parties, Communist and Socialist, so political competition found itself transferred into labour relations. Furthermore, whilst the unification of employers' organisations received state support, the two main trade union confederations -the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) - competed against each other due to the clashes of interest in which the early governments of the transition period were immersed.

The transition period, 1978-82

In 1978, Spanish employees voted in union elections for company-level representatives for the first time. In companies with fewer than 50 workers, the workforce elects workers' delegates (delegados de personal), while in larger firms it elects representatives (the number depending on the size of the workforce) to the workers' committee (comité de empresa) which represents the workers to management and is responsible for company-level collective bargaining. Candidates for election need not be trade union nominees, but in reality they are usually elected from union slates. The total number of workers' representatives obtained by each trade union (both delegates and members of workers' committees) is used to calculate its representativeness across the sector, region or indeed the whole country. Labour legislation considers only those trade unions with over 10% of the total number of representatives to be representative (as spokespersons, negotiators, beneficiaries of trade union assets or other state benefits and so on) at intersectoral or at sectoral level. At the level of the regions (autonomous communities), the threshold is 15%. These rules helped, during the transition period from 1978 to 1982, to concentrate most of the representation of both blue- and white-collar workers and most of the capacity to participate in collective bargaining in the hands of two large union confederations, CC.OO and UGT. At regional level, there are three trade unions with the same recognition rights in their own region - Basque Workers' Solidarity (Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna/Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos, ELA/STV) and, since 1994, also LAB in the Basque Country and the Galician Trade Union Confederation (Converxencia Intersindical Galega/Convergencia Intersindical Gallega, CIG) in Galicia.

Political consolidation, 1982-6

Until 1982, union elections were held every two years. From 1982 to 1995, however, they were held every four years. Voter turnout in the union elections stood, and continues to stands, at over 70%, which is often higher than in political elections.

Over the 1982-6 period, the election results were fairly evenly balanced between UGT and CC.OO, although with major variations. CC.OO was clearly ahead of UGT in 1978, but this position was reversed in 1982, when UGT received most votes overall and, importantly, in large companies. In 1986 the trend began to change again: UGT won overall but CC.OO received most votes in large companies and in key sectors such as banking.

New electoral method in 1994-5

In 1994-5 a new electoral system was introduced, known as "dynamic computation". This allows elections in companies to be called at any time by agreement between the interested parties. The plan to to hold elections is communicated to the public labour authorities, which then count the votes cast and declare the results to the trade unions, employers' organisations and general public. In 1994-5, CC.OO once again gained a slight advantage overall, while CC.OO and UGT together increased their lead over the remaining unions.

1998 elections

The 1998 round of elections was also governed by the dynamic computation method. To avoid excessive competition, the Ministry of Labour, the trade unions and the CEOE employers' confederation agreed to withhold the announcement of results during the election period in order to avoid influencing the elections in companies and sectors that had not yet voted. However, some general figures, whose reliability has been confirmed, were leaked to the press in early 1999. The figures in the table below refer to the position at the end of 1998 - though not all the elections had yet been held by this stage, the great majority of the results were in.