Spanish commerce unions campaign for trade union rights in multinationals

The two UNI Commerce affiliates FECOHT-CCOO and FETCHTJ-UGT have joined forces in a campaign for workers' rights in Spanish retailing. Spain is the only country in the European Union, where the local management of leading European retailers openly defy fundamental ILO conventions on trade union rights.

Together with UNI Commerce, the Spanish trade unions have warned the management of a number of multinationals not to get involved in the run-up to workplace elections later this year. Some of these companies, including Carrefour and Metro/Makro have an appalling track record of improper involvement in trade union activities in Spain.

In June this year, the two Spanish UNI Commerce affiliates launched their joint campaign for trade union rights. The CCOO-UGT assembly brought together more than one thousand union activists from all over the country. Their message was that the leading commerce multinationals must now put an end to their anti-union behaviour and their support for post-Francoist yellow 'trade union' structures.

The strange situation in this EU member state dates to the fascist dictatorship of general Franco. When the Spanish people regained democracy twenty-five years ago, the two trade union movements CCOO and UGT forcefully entered the country's workplaces and took on an important role in developing the new society.

Commerce was an exception. Here, the large Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés established its own management controlled employees' association and was soon followed by others. FASGA and FETICO, the two major yellow 'unions' are thus continuing the traditions of the vertical 'trade unions' of the dictatorship years. These vertical unions brought together both management and workers and were a control tool for management and the dictatorship authorities.

Today, management in several large commerce companies still try to continue this tradition. They give active support to their yellow 'trade union' creations while putting as many obstacles as possible in the way of genuine union representatives. Obstructing communication with workers and putting pressure on election candidates to pull back is part of the dirty tricks assortment of some of these human resource managers.

This autumn, FECOHT-CCOO and FETCHTJ-UGT are monitoring developments in the leading multinationals in a particularly intensive way. The country's workplace elections are fast approaching and the unions want to make clear that management involvement is not welcome. They are not asking for favours as they know that in a free election where workers would not need to be afraid of reprisals they would secure a solid majority.

UNI Commerce continues to be in close contact with the two Spanish affiliates and the international management of the companies concerned, to help secure honest and fair elections.