[Alternative Libertaire, nov. 2004]

For years it was already true on the ground. The General Labor Confederation (CGT, anarcho-syndicalist) could be considered as the third Spanish labor organisation, behind the two big union centrals, the Worker's Commissions (CC-OO) and the General Union of Labor (UGT). Now, at the end of the union election process in the private and public sector, it can truly be said, and the numbers prove it, that the CGT is consolidating its position as the third most "representative" of Spain's workers.

With over 5,000 shop stewards (3,639 elected to industrial committees and 1,400 elected as official union delegates), representatives in more than 1,600 companies and a field of action that directly reaches over 2 million workers, we can measure the work done in the 25 years since the crisis in Spanish anarcho-syndicalism that split the CNT.

Let us examine the details. Over one million workers voted for the CGT during the last elections to industrial committees. To this number must be added the 600,000 workers that the CGT represents in collective bargaining and the 300,000 in the smaller subcontracting shops. A total of two million people, or 15.4% of Spain's 13 million workers. There are on average 560 workers in the shops where the CGT is active and the average number of CGT elected officials is 2.5 by shop.

Here's for the numbers. In the private sector, the CGT is biggest in banks, the metallurgy sector, communications and cleaning services. In the public sector, they are most active in the RENFE (railways), Post Office, in the cities and regional television. While it still has a modest number of actual members (around 60,000) in comparison with the membership of the CC-OO (communist) and UGT (socialist) which each have between 700,000 and 800,000 members, the CGT is no longer simply a token presence. It is a force which is able to lead local struggles but also important sectorial struggles, something which has been the case for many years in sectors of the over-exploited and precarious workforce such as the call centers, for example. While the UGT and CC-OO have over the years had a strong policy of class collaboration, on the ground they often have to opt for an opposite position to avoid seeing entire sections passing over to the CGT, which is not unknown after a strike or collective bargaining on wages, hours or conditions in a company. Active in companies through its union sections, the CGT also intervenes in other fields as well, thanks to its social action groups and committees on various issues (anti-militarism, women, young people, Chiapas, ecology).

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