Trade Union Confederation holds its ninth Confederal Congress

The new management of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions, chosen by a narrow margin of votes at its ninth Confederal Congress in December 2008, is concentrating more on reinforcing the confederal nature of the organisation than on offering an alternative social dialogue policy. In the last few years, the trade union has grown considerably, leading to major organisational restructuring and an increase in the number of internal disputes.

The ninth Confederal Congress of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras, CCOO), the largest trade union organisation in Spain, was held in Madrid on 17–20 December 2008. The 1,001 delegates who attended the congress, representing the regional and sectoral organisations of the trade union, elected the new management for the next four years. The start of the new mandate is marked by the worsening of the economic crisis in Spain and an unprecedented increase in unemployment (ES0809019I), which could represent a severe test for the strategy adopted by CCOO in recent years.

Changes in trade union management

The successful candidacy was led by Ignacio Fernández Toxo, who had been serving as the Secretary of Trade Union Action. Mr Toxo managed to bring together the groups that were critical of the administration of the previous general secretary: the ‘critical’ section on the left wing of the trade union, and the ‘alternative’ movement led by Rodolfo Benito. Mr Toxo had a narrow win, taking 51% of the votes against the outgoing General Secretary, José María Fidalgo, who had been seeking to complete the maximum of three mandates – totalling 12 years – established in CCOO’s statutes.

Mr Toxo’s main reason for standing was probably the inability of Mr Fidalgo to reconcile the different factions in the organisation, which had led to an increase in disputes between the management and the sectoral and regional federations in the last few years. The new general secretary has expressed his desire to involve all sections of the trade union in the decision-making process and to reinforce the confederal management by offering a more prominent role to the regional federations.

However, Mr Toxo’s slim winning margin, and the fact that he was one of the main designers of the recent trade union strategy, would suggest that no great changes are to be expected in the orientation of the trade union. Another indicator of future continuity and peace among the various interest groups is the fact that the action programme for the next four years was approved by 94% of the delegates. The programme offers no major innovations.

Action programme

The action programme of the ninth Congress emphasises the need for a change in the national economic model, based on investment in economic sectors that offer greater productivity and sustainability as a guarantee of competitiveness and social cohesion.

CCOO’s demands at confederal level tend to be expressed through its participation in social dialogue. However, a central aim of its future activities is the extension of trade union action and collective bargaining to all workplaces. In the last four years, the trade union has signed major agreements that have given it new instruments for increasing its capacity for intervention in companies. Some examples of this strategy are: the measures agreed to limit the abuse of temporary recruitment (ES0605019I); the increase in trade union rights for controlling the chain of subcontracting in the construction sector (ES0705019I); and the possibility of negotiating gender equality plans in companies (ES0704019I).

Growth of membership and organisational restructuring

The best electoral argument of the outgoing general secretary was undoubtedly the increase of over 20% in membership in comparison with 2004, bringing CCOO to a total of 1,192,000 members. In terms of representativeness, in the same period the trade union confederation increased its advantage over the second largest Spanish trade union group by 7,000 delegates.

CCOO has also reorganised its federal structure through several mergers, which will be concluded at the founding congresses of the new macro-federations during the first quarter of 2009. The founding congress of the Citizen Service Federation of CCOO, scheduled for early March, will culminate in the merger of the Public Administration Services Federation (Federación de Servicios y Administraciones Públicas, FSAP-CCOO) and the Communication and Transport Federation (Federación de Comunicación y Transporte, FCT-CCOO).

The merger of the Retailing, Hotels and Catering and Tourism Federation (Federación de Comercio, Hostelería y Turismo, Fecoht-CCOO) and the Financial and Administrative Services Federation (Federación de Servicios Financieros y Administrativos, Comfia-CCOO), which will form the future Service Federation of CCOO, is scheduled for late March 2009. Meanwhile, the breakdown of negotiations on the merger of the Federation of Textiles, Leather, Chemicals and Allied Industries (Federación de la Industria Textil-Piel, Químicas y Afines, Fiteqa-CCOO) and the Mining and Metal Federation (Federación Minerometalúrgica, FM-CCOO) was announced in early January. This process, due to conclude in February 2009, was initiated two years ago with a view to setting up the Industry Federation of CCOO, which would be its largest federation in terms of membership.

Juan Arasanz Díaz, QUIT, University Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB)