Los retos del sindicalismo en el siglo XXI

Abstract

The trade unions have a number of challenges to face in the 21st Century. The first and essential challenge is the one of the leading and stimulating of the process of work distribution. This is also a challenge for society as a whole for the 21st Century. After facing this challenge the trade unions will have to adapt themselves to the changes which have taken place in the arrangement of the working class. They will have to readapt their organization and action in order to cover the sectors which have been opposed to trade union force up to now, like the so called Service Sector. Their objective should be the increase of their affiliation. A third handicap the trade unions will have to overcome is the damage of collective bargaining –very related to the currrent economic-politic situation– and of hostility towards trade union activity. They could achieve this through a correct organization and trade union protective action. As a fourth challenge Spanish trade unionism must solve the problem of the little importance of collective bargaining caused by the weakness of federations and the turning to the state instead of turning to the company organizations when negotiating. This constitutes a problem because a weak collective bargaining discourages affiliation. Finally the last problem is that the nationalist trade unions are confined by judicial connection and the practices of the state performers that make Euskal Herria´s trade unions which have even made an accusation against Gernika´s Statute.