UGT prepares regional and sectoral restructuring

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In early 1999, Portugal's UGT trade union confederation is preparing to make a number of organisational changes, aimed at meeting new challenges. Some of these changes are designed to strengthen regional activities and UGT's presence at company level, while others are directed towards centralisation.

In late 1998 and early 1999, the restructuring of trade union organisation in Portugal - which is seen as as a fundamental factor in keeping pace with the changes in the economy - has taken various forms. The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP) has centralised functions in some of its union federations as a way of employing its resources more efficiently. The General Workers' Union (União Geral de Trabalhadores, UGT), for its part, is also preparing to make a variety of organisational changes. These include

• strengthening its organisational structure at the company level. The unions have been working very actively on strengthening workplace health and safety committees, as provided for by law, and on implementing European Works Councils (EWC s). Although the European Union EWCs Directive (94/45/EC) has still not yet been transposed into Portuguese law (PT9901125N), the unions have been exerting pressure by becoming more active within companies. In this context, the UGT has set up a company-level structure called the "union committee" (comité sindical). Currently, in Portugal, unions are represented within companies by workplace union representative s, or if there is more than one union representing workers in the same company, a workplace multi-union committee may be set up. The new structure is aimed at making union representation more effective;

• increasing activity at the regional level. Measures being considered include dedicating special weeks to activity in particular regions and forming regional "councils" and networks of union representatives; and

• introducing changes at sectoral level. This applies notably in the banking sector, which has three regional unions, where there is currently a need to join forces in a federation in order to be able to respond to increasing centralisation of the sector. This trade union centralisation would be accompanied by changes in the collective bargaining process. While the banking sector, in contrast with other sectors, has maintained company-level bargaining, the unions would like to be able to negotiate a centralised collective agreement.