Trends in trade union membership

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Trade union membership in Spain began to recover in the 1990s following a serious decline in the 1980s. Certain developments have encouraged greater membership amongst women, skilled workers and public employees, though it remains low amongst unemployed people and those in insecure jobs (mainly women and young people). The structure of membership has also undergone great changes, including the increasing importance of the public sector.

Membership of Spanish trade unions declined sharply in the 1980s for complex but identifiable reasons: changes in the structure of production and in the labour market; decentralisation, which broke down into smaller units the large companies that were trade union strongholds; the elimination of jobs in the most traditional unionised sectors; the spectacular rise in unemployment; and the great increase in temporary employment. There were also reasons of a legal-institutional type: union action in companies is mainly in the hands of workers' committee s, elected by all workers - although most of the representatives are union members; and collective bargaining and all other types of agreement benefit all workers equally, whether or not they are union members. Factors of union strategy, such as divisions amongst unions, and the difficulty of adapting to changes that transform the nature of work and employment, could also have played a role.

In the early 1990s union membership was 1,700,000, representing 14.5% of workers - 750,000 fewer than in 1978. However, by 1997 membership (as declared by the main union organisations) had risen to very nearly 2,250,000, representing 18.2% of workers. This was a major recovery if we bear in mind that unemployment and insecure employment are still the fundamental characteristics of the Spanish labour market. According to some commentators, the greatest responsibility for this growth must be attributed to the unions themselves, in particular to their attention to the conditions of new workers, their consistent fight for employment and their indefatigable bargaining efforts.

Nationwide unions and regional differences

The great majority of union membership is still in the most industrially developed regions: Catalonia, Madrid and the Basque Country. However, there has been growth in other regions such as the Balearic Islands, Andalusia and Galicia, where membership has grown mainly in the area of services, in particular in the public or semi-public sector.

Many of the small trade unions that emerged during the period of political transition of the 1970s have disappeared or have been reduced to a few thousand members. Others have remained because they are concentrated in sectors in which they have bargaining rights - eg the Workers' Trade Unionist Confederation (Unión Sindical Obrera, USO). There are also nationalist trade unions - such as Basque Workers' Solidarity (Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna/Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos, ELA/STV) and the Galician trade union confederation (Converxencia Intersindical Galega/Convergencia Intersindical Gallega, CIG) - that may have greater membership than nationwide unions within their territories.

The declared membership figures of the main trade unions in 1997 are set out in the following table. Three-quarters of membership is concentrated into the two main confederations, the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT). This is practically the same proportion as their representation on workers' committees, which means that they are the major actors in collective bargaining and in bipartite or tripartite institutional processes.

Sectoral changes

The great change that has taken place in union membership over the last 15 years is the primacy of the public sector. At present between 30% and 35% of members come from this sector, although it is not easy to obtain an accurate figure because in several union federations the public and private sectors are organised jointly. It should be remembered that in Spain the public sector embraces not only the public administration but also education and the health service, in which the majority of workers belong to the public sector, as well as many workers in transport and communications.

Nevertheless, the mining and metalworking federations - recently enlarged to include construction and wood in UGT's case - are still the largest in the most important confederations, although they show a downward tendency. Membership is falling in the chemicals and construction sectors and rising in banking and commerce, but these changes are mainly due to changes in the total number of workers in these sectors. Membership is also rising - though very slightly - amongst unemployed people and pensioners.

Historical obstacles overcome

Little by little, the Spanish unions are losing the character of institutions representing male, manual, industrial workers and are acquiring one that is closer to the more complex labour reality of today.

Female membership has risen, though it is below the rate of participation of women in the labour market. There are also far more members amongst skilled workers than in the past, though this phenomenon is found mainly in the public sector. Also, skilled workers in the public sector tend to join the general unions, while in the private sector they tend to join the unions of their sector or category (which have a minority representation in their respective environments).

Commentary

Despite the progress of the last decade, Spanish unions must face major challenges in order to become channels of representation and participation for large groups of working citizens.

They must first face the challenge of unemployed people. Some 15 years ago, the unions sought a presence amongst the "assemblies of unemployed people" (asambleas de parados). The assemblies failed and the unions also failed in their objective of organising unemployed people, which has led the latter to feel increasingly excluded. UGT set up a federation of unemployed people in 1998 (ES9804251F), and other unions invite unemployed people to organise themselves in sectoral unions. Both options seem problematic, in particular for unemployed people who have never worked or have had only insecure jobs.

There is also the challenge of those in insecure employment, who make up one-third of the employed population and are reluctant to join unions because in their situation they obtain little benefit from membership. Here, the only course of action seems to be a resolute, targeted fight in companies and regions to improve the conditions of these workers, and to give them greater stability and similar conditions to those in secure employment. As an example of this, a campaign against aspects of the operational policy of temporary employment agencies seems essential.

In the area of women and young people, the unions are currently following two courses of action, which they must continue. The first is to campaign to make the employment conditions of these groups as similar as possible to those of the rest of the workers. The second is to give more room in union organisational and management structures to women and young people.

Lastly, Spanish unions must face the great challenge of recruiting members amongst workers in small companies (more than 60% of workers are in companies with fewer than 10 workers) who are subject to employer's personal attitudes. This will require a great organisational and strategic change that places emphasis more on the region and less on the company, because the current fragmentation can be fought only at a regional level. This also seems evident for the unions, though it is not always easy to change practices inherited from the tradition of medium-sized and large companies. (Fausto Miguélez, QUIT)