Broadening and reimagining regulation: Trade unions,‘active servicing’ and immigration in Spain since the early 1990s

Abstract

This article shows the influence of regulatory traditions and history in shaping trade union responses to temporary labour migration. The case study of Spain is presented to illustrate this. Drawing on qualitative research which is part of a three-country study of trade union, migration and social exclusion/inclusion, the article highlights the importance of understanding established regulatory practices, parallel forms of regulation and historical legacies of previous practices in framing current responses. This subsequently furthers understanding of the politics and tensions that arise in debating inclusionary versus exclusionary responses.

Keywords

Immigration regulation social inclusion trade unions

Introduction

Spain is a country that witnessed some of the most significant movements in terms of emigration between the 1940s and 1960s. In addition, in the past two decades, Spain has transformed from being a country where immigration has been virtually non-existent to having one of the highest levels of immigration in Europe (Bruquetas-Callejo et al., 2011). In a context of political development, extensive social change and highly dualist labour markets (and one of the highest levels of unemployment in Europe since 1980), Spain has had to assimilate and manage extensive workforce and population change. These challenges have stimulated a major internal political debate on Spain’s identity and regional structure. The current context in which unemployment and labour market fragmentation is the highest in Europe brings to the fore the importance of this case study for understanding how industrial relations institutions have managed these social and economic transitions, of which immigration is a significant part. The reality is that, regardless of any nuances and issues, Spain has seen extraordinary responses from the state and trade unions in a context where institutional coverage in terms of regulation and management are not as embedded as they are in their Northern European counterparts. The issues that migration gives rise to for immigrants, and for the employment relations system more generally, are broad: questions of worker rights, personal development, regulation and representation are but some of the areas that are affected by questions of migration and the way that employers and the state relate to them.

It is clear that traditional union work can and does play a role, as, for example, the role of bargaining in enhancing the conditions and pay of workers, including migrants. However, these practices work across the collective body of workers that is organized and consequently affect workers involved in that bargaining unit, whether migrant or not. Another example is when trade unions have lobbied for an enhancement of universalistic welfare services. Hence, outlining the role of unions in enhancing the economic and social conditions of immigrant communities is difficult because many established activities tend to affect individuals within the constituency represented, irrespective of their social background. It could be argued that some of these practices have been problematic and segmented the workforce in the past. However, in theory, many union strategies cover large groups of workers – although the assumption is that these groups are inclusive, which, as we acknowledge from our research, has not always been the case.

Given this, we focus on strategies that are aimed deliberately at migrant as well as black and minority ethnic workers because they are felt to have exceptional contextual circumstances and tend to have a more tenuous presence – in general – within the core regulatory activities and outcomes of the union movement. Hence, we explore a range of activities in relation to migration: institutional relations with the state; the role of learning and training; the development of advisory and support centres, which have been key to the Spanish response; the role of outreach workers and field workers; the link with housing and welfare support; and the development of immigrant organizations, immigrant activists and immigrant sections of the unions. The article therefore points to the way in which regulatory traditions and history shape trade unions’ responses and their characteristics. However, the strategies of social inclusion developed by unions reflect modes of organization, which may have limitations and problems related to more direct forms of political inclusion. Furthermore, the nature of the new forms of migration challenges the way in which trade unions connect with and engage migrants in a more direct manner.

The research for this article is part of a three-country study of trade unions, migration and social exclusion/inclusion that took place from 2008 to 2011 in the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Social inclusion covers a range of themes: education, labour market access, social support, political voice and others. The question of coordination and development is central, especially as sustainability is a major problem in the development of social inclusion strategies. Furthermore, when thinking through issues of regulation, we need to not only understand questions of articulation, but also ways in which established regulatory practices, parallel forms of regulation and historical legacies of previous practices frame the way organizations develop and establish strategies. In turn, this allows us to understand the dynamics of the politics and tensions that may arise in relation to the processes of inclusion.

The article draws on 46 interviews conducted with trade union officials and activists, public bodies, migrant organizations, and documented and undocumented immigrants in a number of different regions in Spain. The key interviews, both semi-structured and unstructured, have been conducted with trade union officials and activists at all levels of the Comisiones Obreras (Workers Commissions; CCOO) and the Union General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers; UGT), including specific migrant organizations (especially Ecuadorian and Colombian organizations). The research methodology has been qualitative, with a focus on gaining an in-depth understanding of the evolution of trade union strategies in Spain. The research has also included some participant observation of trade union congresses and visits to trade union offices and union-run migrant worker information centres and offices in five regional states within Spain. We begin by focusing on the background to immigration in Spain and the nature of industrial relations and trade unionism in this country. This is followed by a discussion on the way in which trade unions have responded to immigration and the issues that subsequently emerge.

Studying immigration and regulation

Penninx and Roosblad (2000) argue that trade unions have faced three dilemmas in terms of their response to migrant workers: first, whether to resist immigration or cooperate and try to influence state immigration policy; second, whether to include migrant workers as union members once they have arrived; and third, whether special union policies should be established for migrant and minority ethnic members over and above those policies for white members. Penninx and Roosblad (2000) therefore identify a set of factors to account for national differences in union policies towards immigrants: the social position of the union movement, its power and its structure; the economic and labour market situation; the broader institutional context (the political structure, legislation, national ideologies and public discourse); and the characteristics of the immigrants themselves. The authors suggest that national contextual factors are important for understanding national variation and have led to different outcomes, a proposition supported in recent research. Penninx and Roosblad (2000) also stressed the importance of the ‘power position of trade unions in a society’. They found, for instance, that in countries where trade unions were involved in policymaking, such as Sweden, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands, unions adopted ‘cooperation from a position of strength’: they were able to renegotiate the terms of the recruiting system in such a way that labour relations and bargaining positions would not be jeopardized (Penninx and Roosblad, 2000: 13–14). Similarly, Vranken (1990: 50) points out the importance of ‘the position of trade unions in society’, measured in terms of trade unions’ size (membership), relative importance (degree of unionization), number (one confederation or a number of small local or crafts unions), and relationship with political parties and national authorities. Furthermore, in his comparative research on Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK, Krings (2010) points out the importance of factors such as the state of the economy and of the labour market, the position and influence of trade unions, and the political discourse on immigration.

The nature of migration is another key issue, however. Watts (2002), for instance, explained the recent favourable attitude of Italian and Spanish unions towards more open immigration policies and their attempt to recruit and represent migrant workers on the basis of the size of the underground economy. According to Watts, in fact, trade unions believe that restrictive immigration policies and the consequent increase of illegal immigration would raise irregular work, also damaging the wages and protections of native workers. Hence, no single factor can account for the variations in trade union policies on labour migration; however, national contextual factors continue to be decisive. Nonetheless, the influence of national contextual factors is mediated by the presence of historical legacies, public opinion and political debate that affect how issues of immigration and migrant workers are perceived (see e.g. Zapata-Barrero, 2009). In this respect, Wrench (2004) has shown that in European countries there are differences in the way the issues are defined and in the policies that are deemed appropriate. Many Northern European countries (e.g. the UK and the Netherlands) with long histories of immigration have been more concerned with racial discrimination, its implications for the opportunities of an established second or third generation of post-war migrant origin, and the equal opportunities strategies needed to combat this. This has been combined with more recent strategies to organize new sets of migrant workers coming from Central and Eastern European countries. In contrast, Southern European countries (e.g. Spain) have tended to be preoccupied with the issues of a relatively recent influx of immigrants, working precariously on short-term work permits, and with a large problem of undocumented workers suffering from extreme exploitation. These differences have important implications for the study of trade union responses to immigration at the European level and the possibilities for coordination, and even shared understanding, of the issues.

The way in which trade unions respond may cover a range of practices and processes, although these may not always fit coherently (Hardy and Fitzgerald, 2011; Martínez Lucio and Perrett, 2009). We thus argue that the issue of regulation has to be mapped in a new and more novel way (MacKenzie and Martínez Lucio, 2005). One cannot just measure the role of the state in any quantitative manner and read off from it the possibility for social inclusion strategies, whether existing or not – especially as the state is composed of various complex levels and institutions along with competing legitimating projects (Jessop, 2007). The issue of social inclusion is not solely based on the need to develop social inclusion strategies and to legitimate them. The type and focus of social inclusion strategies that are developed by specific actors and with what support and evaluation strategies are equally important. Social inclusion covers a range of themes: education, labour market access, social support, political voice and others. The question of coordination and development is therefore central, especially as sustainability is a major problem in the development of social inclusion strategies. What is more, when thinking through issues of regulation, we need to understand not solely questions of articulation, but also ways in which established regulatory practices, parallel forms of regulation and historical legacies of previous practices frame the way that organizations develop and establish strategies.

Background to immigration and Spanish industrial relations

As in other Mediterranean countries, for a long time Spain has been a country of labour emigration. In the mid-1980s, however, Spain started to attract immigrants more systematically. This rapid change has been explained, on the one hand, by the decline of indigenous workers in the rural areas as a result of internal migration and, on the other hand, by employers’ demand for cheap labour after economic restructuring from the late 1980s (Bruquetas-Callejo et al., 2011; Calavita, 2005). Immigration, in fact, was still very low at that time (241,971 immigrants, constituting 0.63% of the total population in 1986) and mainly consisted of European citizens. The only significant extra-European groups were Moroccans, Colombians, Chileans and Argentineans (Miguélez and Recio, 2008). In 1993, the Spanish government launched a quota system aimed at creating a direct way to enter into Spain for a limited number of applications and in particular economic sectors. This system, however, worked as a regularization programme, since most applications were filed by irregular migrants already in the country. Immigration law was modified several times in the following years. Immigration to Spain started growing faster at the beginning of 2000, following the Spanish economic boom, in particular of the tourist industry, and was especially concentrated in areas such as Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands (Bruquetas-Callejo et al., 2011). According to the national statistical bureau (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE)), in 2010 the number of immigrants reached 5,708,940, constituting 12.2% of the total population.

Certain characteristics of the 1939–1975 period of right-wing dictatorship under Franco were to have a strong influence on the subsequent development of the Spanish labour relations system (Toharia, 1988). First, the effectiveness of worker representation in the workplace and at company level has been highly variable (Ortiz, 1996). At the end of the 1970s, trade unionism was ‘extraordinarily complex’ and politicized (Miguélez, 1991: 214). Subsequently, the structure of representation was clarified by the increasing duopoly of representation by the majority unions, the UGT and CCOO. CCOO emerged out of the spontaneous semi-clandestine workplace organization of the 1939–1975 period of right-wing dictatorship. The UGT has a much longer history. Founded in 1888, it has always been closely linked to the dominant social-democratic party, the Socialist Workers Party of Spain (Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE)), founded a few years earlier. Despite its near-total eclipse during the dictatorship years, it regained a leading role following the transition to democracy, helped by the establishment of a favourable legal-institutional framework. These two trade unions have tended to receive over 80% of the trade union/works council elections held to determine representation in the past 30 years, although there is a significant minority trade union and regional trade union tradition.

Low union membership density, which has oscillated between 10% and 20% over the past 30 years, has led to financial difficulties and reliance on state funding in certain activities. In terms of the emergence of a new form of immigration and labour mobility – and the increasing presence of a female workforce – the reality is of a labour movement attempting to respond to the institutional needs of such groups. This is done through relevant structures internally and state-supported servicing programmes, as with immigrants, and even greater attempts at more inclusive approaches in terms of the servicing and support of diverse union membership bases. The membership figures give an incomplete picture of union influence (Jordana, 1996). Results in the workplace union elections in which all employees, whether union members or not, are entitled to vote is around 80%, indicating that three-quarters or more of the votes go to the CCOO and UGT. The Spanish union movement has been labelled a ‘voters’ trade unionism’ rather than a ‘members’ trade unionism’ (Martin Valverde, 1991: 24–25). In other words, influence depends on electoral success as much as on membership figures. In these terms, the main Spanish unions appear to be more favourably regarded and more widely supported by workers than their membership figures might indicate. In 1996, in a major development in union relations, the two main confederations launched a coordinated joint collective bargaining strategy to extend the remit and content of bargaining, and to lay down bargaining priorities aimed at maintaining employment levels and improving employment security.

The 1990s began to see a variety of sectors, such as construction, agriculture and hospitality, turn to immigrant labour sources. Spain’s immigration level up until the 1990s was one of the lowest in Europe, having emerged from a relatively closed and internally oriented economy under the dictatorship in terms of labour markets. If anything, the regime prioritized emigration as a way of sustaining managed urban development and growth during the 1960s and 1970s. However, during the 1990s, immigration from North Africa, Latin America (especially Ecuador and Colombia) and Eastern Europe (Romania and Poland, in particular) meant that a new workforce was arriving and settling in key urban areas and agricultural towns. In 1996, 1.4% of the population was born overseas, whereas in 2008, it was 11.33% (Aragon Medina et al., 2009).

According to most trade unionists, this led to a range of challenges for the labour movement due to a broad presence of immigrants in the informal economy – which is one of the largest in Europe – such as hospitality and agriculture, and an increasing use of migration in key sectors such as construction. Trade unionists from the CCOO and UGT were encountering a range of bad employment practices, health and safety hazards, and low pay levels among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whose employment of immigrants was relatively more significant to the Spanish economy when compared to countries such as the UK or Germany. There was a growing awareness that as workers, immigrants were subject to high levels of exploitation and susceptible to greater risks in terms of health and safety issues due to the culture of smaller firms and their tendency to bypass regulations in many cases, while also placing pressure on the system of regulation within labour markets such as collective bargaining by undercutting wages.

Dimensions of union responses and engagement

Engaging the state: Social dialogue, social services and learning

While state–labour relations have normally been strategic and not as embedded in Spain as they are in Austria or Sweden (Martínez Lucio, 1998), this dimension of trade union strategy has been significant in creating spaces around which regulatory reform and change could be discussed and supported in relation to the changing labour market and immigration. First, trade unions have steadily become involved in a range of tripartite bodies at the national and local level. The national bodies have involved trade unions, employers and immigrant organizations and they are involved in a range of discussions with the state on immigration flows, labour market needs and social issues. These have allowed peak-level dialogue to evolve within various social- and economic-related ministries, which has facilitated further dialogue between trade unions and various immigrant organizations, although the latter have varied in their resources and strategic focus. The role of the trade union movement in relation to the state is variable; some would argue that there have been a range of national-level institutional relations and agreements (Guillen et al., 2008), while others have been more sanguine in their analysis (Martínez Lucio, 1998, 2008). However, this has been a significant area for trade union intervention on the subject of immigration. The trade union movement has been involved at the national level in strategic discussions about residency and worker rights. In addition, the role of ‘amnesties’ for undocumented workers, which has periodically been implemented to alleviate social and regulatory pressures within the labour market, has involved to varying degrees the main trade unions and their respective heads of immigration and employment. This is an important feature of the dialogue, which in cases such as the UK does not exist. Relations between the Ministry of Labour and the majority unions on such issues are frequent, with committees chaired by leading academics. Since the relabelling of the Ministry of Labour as the Ministry of Labour and Immigration (a title that has been mirrored in the major unions), these relations have continued further, albeit interspersed with moments of significant difference and disagreement. The election of the PSOE (the social democratic Spanish Socialist Workers Party) in 2003 was seen as a major step forward in this respect, although relations with the previous right-wing administration were significant. This institutional dynamic has been paralleled by developments at the regional government level. In some places, such as Aragon, we have seen a very close relation up until 2011 between the main unions and the relevant governmental departments. The dialogue has focused on assisting social dialogue and representation throughout the local level of the region, and in identifying social and welfare needs.

The national and regional level of the state has also developed active links with immigrant bodies, with state funding and forums being offered so as to support the role and voice of immigrants. The challenge has been the unstable nature of immigrant organization and the variation of practices between various migrant communities. However, the regional tiers of the state and organized labour have in that case included representatives from various communities. This was the case in Castille La Mancha, which was Socialist in terms of governance up until 2011, and Castille Leon, which was under the right-wing Popular Party. In the case of the Madrid region, the nature of the right-wing presidency and its hostility to social dialogue and trade unions provided a counterpoint to what was a relative norm in Spain overall in such matters. Immigrant bodies within the Colombian and Ecuadorian communities commented on the growing reticence towards and uncertainty about dialogue and funding within that specific regional community. Political contingencies and the growing electoral sensitivities around immigration issues may begin to alter this strategic social dialogue at the regional level, not least due to the serious financial situation facing the state in Spain, which has led to internal funding issues within trade unions, and with regards to state support for their social work, as seen during our research.

These developments have been paralleled by increasing levels of trade union intervention in regional and local government forums. These are especially present in agricultural areas, where immigration has become a vital feature of the labour market. Local tripartite bodies are active in regions as diverse as Castille La Mancha and Aragon. They engage with issues related to social needs (e.g. housing and education), economic relations (e.g. employment and the role of agencies) and issues of citizenship and learning, for example. The unions also use such bodies to propagate the role of collective bargaining and national and provincial agreements within sectors such as agriculture, thus sustaining a dialogue with or influence on employers in such sectors through national bargaining negotiations and these local bodies. These are normally propelled politically by a desire to avoid social exclusion, and in particular social conflict, which has been apparent through various incidents and xenophobic events. Hence, these structures allow the trade unions to influence the regulatory control of employers with immigrant workforces and influence public policy, although the outcomes are not always sustainable or consistent across regions or municipalities (Aragon et al., 2009: 220).

However, major strides towards social dialogue and social welfare organization have been made at the levels of local city, town and village government. In a major study of this dimension of union activity, it was shown how such local-level structures of representation have been central not only to the provision and organization of specific social services, but also to the framework of dialogue and the climate of trust that has been constructed between political and social organizations and local communities on the subject of immigration (Aragon et al., 2009). Our research has confirmed this. The trade unions have been pivotal in many cases in establishing special forums that cover key towns or clusters, or towns and villages, with the aim of developing a dialogue between local councillors, employers, unions and, when possible, migrant organizations on issues such as housing and other welfare services. In addition, in agricultural areas in Castille La Mancha, more systematic ways of monitoring employment conditions have been developed. In fact, many of these forums addressed and even enacted employment procedures and recruitment mechanisms to ensure fairness and some amount of regulation with regards to workers, especially in agriculture. It is hard to quantify the extent and outcome of these measures, but they are a feature of various regions and areas. These help to bring employers into discussion and facilitate liaison between local and immigrant populations. The challenge in Spain has been the high proportion of SMEs, along with an extensive hidden economy (Martínez Lucio, 1998). The presence of paternalistic employment practices and the limited reach of sectoral and provincial collective agreements for specific segments of agriculture employing large numbers of immigrant workers were questions that could also be addressed in these forums.

Another area that has seen the state involve itself alongside trade unions has been learning and training, which is common in various other contexts, such as the UK (Heyes, 2009). Through various tripartite bodies and organizations, the trade union movement has managed to link the funds available for training into specific local projects and local training centres. Thus, the role of trade unions in learning and training has expanded in the past 20 years, with significant political influence being held over the allocation of funds (Martínez Lucio et al., 2007). These funds have allowed training courses to be held within trade union centres and supported learning initiatives beyond traditional educational structures within local government and social organizations. They are also very significant in career advice, which is partly offered by trade unions and funded by the state.

The level of the state and its various bodies have been a reference point for trade unions in terms of social dialogue, the opening of representative spaces to various organizations within migrant communities and the provision of services on the front line. These initiatives have mainly been taken up by trade union officers inside the apparatus of the union – especially those from immigrant, social affairs and equality departments. Activists and local territorially-based representatives have played a role and worked alongside these, but it has been the former who have driven this process in the main. The ability to link to the state therefore represents an important dimension of the Spanish response, as we will see in the way information and support services have been developed. The outcome of this link with the state has been significant support for direct union provision to migrants in various aspects of their needs. However, given the increasing crisis of the state in Spain, this has become a considerable area of decline in terms of trade union activity.

Community and communication: Services and information structures

Trade unions have developed a network of information offices and centres throughout virtually every major Spanish city. These have been developed by unions, especially the CCOO and UGT. They are normally located in local union offices, and their role is to act as a first port of call for immigrants in relation to work and other social- or labour-related concerns. There are many immigrant centres and law firms focused on these types of activity, but none can compare to the sheer extent and breadth of the union network – something that is unusual in most European nations. One of the features of this new form of engagement with immigrants is that the state provides a wide range of the funding for such resources. This allows trade unions, who have been identified as being a key part of the provision of such services, to develop trade union-oriented information and a strategy of support centres more generally. Such centres provide a range of information services in relation to employment, citizenship, social rights and housing, among others, although it needs to be made clear that these are not immigrant-led offices, but they may have trade unionists involved from an immigrant background. The unions, in the main, are expected to keep clear records of such activities. A range of individuals are employed in such centres, and in some cases there can be anything up to half-a-dozen people working in one capacity or another, although numbers vary between offices. Our research covered a selection of cities in the centre and north of Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Valladolid and Oviedo), along with visits to the centres and interviews with their staff and the relevant union. These offices were not always located in areas where immigrant communities would reside, but in the main trade union offices. The problem with these developments – which are much lauded within the official European trade union movement – is that they tend to be driven as a service and organized around a professional network of trade unionists. These do not always play a role in linking immigrants into the main body of the trade union – although the realization of this in recent years has been acknowledged and responded to – and they have not really served as a basis for a new network of migrant activists (partly because it is not migrant activists who are involved in them).

In a place such as Oviedo, the CCOO’s offices would have centres for providing information to foreign workers (CITEs) that would attend to at least 3000 individuals a year – and this was quite common. It is clear that as worker centres, they are mainly information-based and formal in their approach to attending to immigrants. They open a file on a worker, which is logged on a main server so that people can return for further advice. This allows, for example, seasonal agricultural workers, as they move across Spain, to be supported and logged when they have visited different offices in different regions according to the harvesting calendar. In comparative terms, across Europe, the experience of the CCOO’s and the UGT’s developments in this area are accepted as a leading ‘benchmark and good practice’ (European Trade Union Congress officer).

The CITEs do not organize in themselves broader social activity, coalition-building or communication strategies with the local immigrant groups. This is driven mainly by the immigration departments of the unions themselves and those coordinating some of the offices in question. Hence, one sees that the actual service provision element is divided from the broader immigration-related strategies of the unions. This means that as centres for bringing workers who are from an immigrant background into the trade union movement, there may be less of a role than at first anticipated. In the geographic areas researched, links with organized immigrant groups were sporadic, as far as the unions were concerned, due to the problems of sustainability that such groups had. This varied according to the extent and politics of different immigrant communities. Hence, in the case of the Castille Leon region, coalition-building was a problem, even though the CCOO union had organized a range of regional-level cultural events. However, in Madrid and Barcelona, links with migrant organizations were more common and stable.

There were concerns within the CCOO locally that there was a need to connect traditional CCOO work to the CITEs and the ‘clients’ they had. In the case of the UGT in Oviedo, there was an acknowledgement that the service had become more detached and that there was a need to rethink such service provision. In 2009, the CCOO began to fuse its immigration section into its employment section, which led to a joint department at the national and regional levels – although this mirrored developments in certain state departments. This was seen as a vital step for integrating the issue of immigration into the mainstream of the union’s work. There were also discussions around building a more proactive network of CITE activists throughout the country, with the aim of using it for information-gathering and as a link into the immigrant population. However, it was not seen as the basis for a stand-alone section or autonomous body according to senior members of the CCOO. This question of fusing the community dynamic into broader strategies around social inclusion and union activism is therefore a challenge, even if the experience of information centres such as Spain’s is one of the most elaborate in Europe. For the UGT, this was a greater problem, with their migrant worker offices being considered to be part of the servicing logic of the union, and the work they did being seen as more technical and ideological in approach. Relevant activists in the specific regional union structures were, for example, concerned with the way in which local regional leaderships were increasingly disconnected from the local and community dimensions of the union, where once they would have visited local sites more often. In this instance, it was recalled how union officers in the regional union would visit the local town and city offices more regularly and be more connected to the local dynamic; instead, the interviewees now felt that it was only every four years during the trade union elections that people from the union offices, and even the larger workplaces, visited local communities and SMEs.

The new ‘community union’ dimension and the link to the past ‘community’ of the union is not so clear in such developments (Martínez Lucio and Connolly, 2012). In the CCOO, this dilemma has been especially apparent in recent years, given its history. The CITEs are in part contextualized in terms of the ‘socio-political’ identity of the union – itself a changing object of internal union politics within the CCOO – but remain ambivalently linked to the union’s overall work and activities. Hence, in recent years, the CCOO has begun to use the CITEs as an entry into the mainstream activity of the union by raising reference to the role of membership and union activity. Hence, while they form a vital part of support for immigrants in terms of their rights, recent strategies have been developed to fuse such immigrant activities more clearly. This demonstrates the way such highly elaborate structures of worker support may be formally linked to the union, but not necessarily its broader politics of community engagement and activism, leading to internal political discussions. However, irrespective of these strategic and political issues, this aspect of trade union intervention is one of the most significant in the EU.

Roaming regulation: Organizing and workplace engagement

Regulation depends on implementation and enforcement. The changing nature of the workplace and the labour market has brought new challenges to the ability to regulate employment conditions, due to subcontracting, agency work and the development of a hidden economy that is increasingly embedded. Spain is exposed to these developments much more than are most European countries. While most areas of work have a relevant collective agreement covering their basic terms and conditions – in the form of company-, national- or provincial-sector agreements – implantation may be uneven in the case of SMEs and sectors such as hospitality and construction, which are precisely where significant parts of the immigrant community work.

In response to this, trade unions have developed a greater emphasis on fieldwork and visits. In the case of agriculture, the UGT, through a cluster of officials, visits groups of workers and areas, for example, during the key moments of harvesting. They target areas and work alongside local trade unionists – some of whom may be immigrants themselves – with the aim of explaining the agreed terms and conditions of employment to workers. They also attempt to pick up on grievances and cases of bad practice in terms of employment. The workforce in the case of harvesting can be very short-term and mobile, such as Romanian tomato-pickers. This means that the workforce can be different each year, and there is a need to constantly monitor and ensure that there is communication with the workers and that employers are checked. The UGT and CCOO check the housing conditions of the workforce (this is explained in greater detail later). In one case, a van is used that allows the seats to swivel so that it becomes a meeting and consultation area – allowing workers to meet discreetly. The relevant collective bargaining meetings for each type of agricultural produce are used by the union to communicate broader issues to employer organizations, and to gather information on a range of questions at the local level. Yet the nature of employment and the networks among smaller employers can undermine and even invalidate much of this institutional effort. The use of visits and fieldwork, therefore, allows the unions to connect directly. However, this strategy depends on the availability of trade unionists, given the expansive and intensive nature of agricultural workers in Spain.

This more direct field-based research is a common feature of trade unionism, but in sectors such as construction, the CCOO in Madrid began to recruit and use Moroccan workers. The regional level of the union identified Moroccan workers who had a positive predisposition to the trade union and brought them into the formal apparatus of the union. They were deployed for visits to construction sites, public spaces where informal recruitment took place and local community centres. They were able to communicate pay rates and other working conditions, and attempt to recruit individuals to the trade union. In the case of hospitality, a Moroccan trade unionist in the CCOO also linked the trade union into local community organizations and political networks inside the Moroccan community. This effort to bring individuals into the core apparatus of the trade union has become a common feature of some European trade unions, but is especially vital in a context where the trade union movement lacks immigrant activists.

These strategies are geared towards connecting with an increasingly decentred workforce. They are also linked to the trade union elections that are held every four years. These elected worker representatives become the official voice of the workforce. In larger firms, they form the basis of the works council. Trade unions compete against each other during this process. This electoral process forces trade unions to organize campaigns in established and larger workplaces through their branches, but in smaller companies, they are normally visited by a team of trade union representatives from other workplaces, or officials from local or regional offices of the union. There are concerns that with SMEs, many trade union representatives are isolated once the electoral process is over, and there have been questions as to whether the elections are a symbolic competition between trade unions to ascertain who are the ‘majority trade unions’ and who can be involved in various state forums. However, these elections do force the unions to engage with a wide group of workers and communicate a range of regulations and policies. Increasingly, this activity has been linked to the logic outlined earlier of connecting and communicating with the more disconnected constituencies of the workforce. They are part of a ritual and process that organizes many of the unions’ resources and focuses them on the totality of the workforce. There were indications from our research that these have become infused with a greater degree of sensitivity to migration-related issues.

However, forms of organizing and direct engagement have historical dimensions as well. The question of immigration can only be understood if the question of emigration is discussed. One interviewee in the UGT agricultural section pointed out a colleague involved in his department who, as a teenager, would catch the train in Valencia with the workers travelling to France for the vendange (grape harvest) and go along the train showing them the salary scales and going rates for the work of picking grapes. He would get off at the border and come back to Valencia and repeat the journey again. This was assisted by the Spanish UGT and the French trade unions. In effect, he was the carrier (the ‘Mercury’) of the regulatory process. As he matured, he then developed his work into supporting immigrants. Both the CCOO and the UGT had Emigrant departments for Spanish workers abroad in such countries as France, the UK and Belgium. They would assist with various projects and link trade union politics into the then diaspora of post-civil war Spanish population. This eventually became transformed into the organizational platform for the immigrant sections, which would be driven by leading immigrant activists and individuals from the Employment, Social and Women’s sections of the union. This confirms Heery and Conley’s (2007) argument that trade union strategies are often linked to and influenced by emergent practices and processes, which can frame the union renewal responses to new labour-market challenges. In many ways, this link between emigration and immigration is an important source of reference for personnel, politics and intervention on questions of mobility. It creates an internal sensitivity to the issue of migration that is embedded structurally – at least in the formal apparatus of the unions. In the case of the UGT Agricultural section, a travelling exhibition of a town’s experience of emigration in the 1960s and 1970s was used to sensitize Spanish people to their (perhaps fading) memory of the experience of emigration.

Welfare and culture: Engaging with immigration beyond the field of work

A curious finding of our research relates to the way trade unions in Spain have tried to cast a wider net on the subject of immigration by addressing non-workplace and employment issues. In the case of the UGT’s work in agriculture, the visits to various areas outlined earlier involved detailed inspections of housing and temporary accommodation. The union would inspect, and if necessary threaten, employers with legal action if the accommodation was problematic. On a visit to the UGT, the researcher was presented with a large set of documentation and archives (consisting of reports and photographs) that covered the accommodation of seasonal workers across a wide variety of Spanish provinces. The quality of the materials was detailed and suggested that this was a central feature of the visits. These initiatives allowed the union to work alongside the labour inspectorate and various other public bodies. The subject of housing and accommodation was also linked into collective bargaining and meetings with employers. It allowed the union to access workers in a broader manner and to legitimate its presence, given the sometimes poor conditions in which immigrants are housed. The visits were therefore systematic in nature, although the number of people available to do them was a challenge to the union.

This question of housing and accommodation was also addressed by trade unionists in terms of longer-term residency. Trade unionists in the UGT in Aragon addressed the difficulty immigrants had in getting accommodation. It was common for immigrants seeking accommodation to be refused access to it, or to have the level of rent increased. Interviews with immigrants confirmed how the rate varied according to what constituency of immigrants one came from. In this regional case, the UGT managed to establish a service whereby they would help immigrants to find accommodation and ensure that the right conditions and rent levels were offered. In fact, the union went further at one stage and offered a temporary accommodation agency and service to bring together landlords and tenants in a regulated and coordinated manner. As with the employment agency-style approach discussed earlier, the trade union was impelled to intervene as an intermediary body. These were not generalized practices, but were common in various regions and illustrate how the trade union has sought to address immigration in a broader manner. It also shows how the union can sustain its links to the community by occupying various spaces and relations. However, sustaining these initiatives can be an organizational challenge, but they run alongside many of the services outlined earlier.

This strategy of extending the remit of the union into the broader life sphere of workers also has a cultural dimension. First, in Castille-Leon, the CCOO established cross-cultural events, encounters and festivals with the aim of engaging migrant communities and creating a dialogue and reference point for the trade union. These cultural interventions were underpinned by engaging with international campaigns on human rights and democratic struggles. The identity of the trade unions – especially the CCOO – allowed it to link with movements and struggles in North Africa and South America through meetings, joint projects and coalitions. This is a missing link in much of the discussion on the question of unions and immigration. The role of international development and democratic rights acts as a lever to connect unions – and represent them – in terms of the political concerns and experiences of immigrants in Spain, but also in relation to their home country. Hence, the political campaigning and international political mobilization of the unions is an important link and basis for activity, permitted by the explicit political activity and identity of the unions. The question of refugee status and legal documentation was an area that minority left-wing unions were also effective in mobilizing on, hence allowing a broader engagement with the new workforce.

This cultural dimension was essential to the CCOO’s research-based First of May Foundation. The development of a series of projects on emigration and immigration were focused on facilitating an active archive of and political sensibility to questions of migration in general as a core part of Spanish national and labour identity. One project focused on collating a vast array of materials (documents and photographs) from Spanish political and economic emigrants abroad. The archives were seen as one of the most extensive in Spain. It led to a series of high-quality publications of an academic and popular nature, broadening the imaginary landscape of migration and linking immigration with emigration. Some projects focused on specific groups of workers, such as Spanish female domestic workers in parts of Europe during the 1940s and 1950s, this being pertinent given the extensive use of immigrants as domestic workers in contemporary Spain. Other projects consisted of collating posters of union and immigrant campaigns throughout Europe. Very few – if any – studies on immigration and unions address these issues, partly due to the masculine view of industrial relations that denies cultural analysis. Yet these cultural interventions are an essential feature of trade union responses because they contextualize action and ideas within a broader historical framework. They also sensitize the trade union and the workforce to the broader question and experience of migration, especially in a context of fading memories of the Spanish diaspora. It shows a commitment to inform strategy with political and historical sensitivities and broadens not just the reach of the union, but also its actual social focus.

Voice and representation: Coalition-building and indirect engagement

This raises a challenge for the Spanish labour movement. While working in terms of a class discourse and state-related approach to social solidarity (to varying extents) in relation to migration, the question of race and ethnicity as a feature of social exclusion has not been paramount. Many interviewees have argued that the problems facing immigrants are related to the nature of the labour market. As stated earlier, anti-racist initiatives at work and in society were not a priority within the labour movement due to low levels of immigration during the formation of the new trade union movement after the dictatorship of Franco (1970s onwards). This has also been reflected in the absence of systematic attempts to create immigrant activist networks, although there is an emerging body of immigrants within the union, and also activists who develop their own informal networks. The argument of various interviewees within the UGT and CCOO from a Spanish background is that this would lead to separatism, and that the British model of black workers’ sections would not be appropriate given low levels of activism within immigrant communities in relation to work-related politics. Training of a specialist nature for such groups is not deemed necessary, as the objective is to have any individuals engaged in the mainstream of trade union education, so the aim as expressed to us was getting immigrants into these modules. The argument we were confronted with was that bringing migrants into activist roles was proving to be challenging. While membership levels were increasing among migrants, activists and trade union representatives were unlikely to be immigrants. Within the public sector, this was almost non-existent due to the manner in which recruitment and nationality are bound together, especially in the civil service. In countries such as the Netherlands and the UK especially, the public-sector unions have been at the forefront of many of the initiatives regarding equality and race, in part due to the presence of black and minority ethnic workers. The trade unions – the UGT and the CCOO – therefore brought immigrants into officer and formal roles within their structures. There were no national or local networks, or special bodies, that linked these individuals together. However, inclusion was considered to be best arranged around the role of supported individuals from immigrant communities who could connect with other immigrant communities on a ‘like-for-like’ basis. Within the construction and hospitality sectors of the Madrid region CCOO, the presence of such individuals – who had been brought on board by indigenous regional officers and leaders – were proving to be pivotal in connecting with the local community of migrant workers. They were able to go into workplaces and engage with individuals from their own background and convey information. They were also individuals that migrants could be asked to see once they came into the office.

In addition to these internal bureaucratic initiatives, there was a systematic attempt to open a dialogue with immigrant organizations. In the case of the CCOO, there were some formal alliances with organizations within such communities through periodic meetings and mutual exchanges of information based on joint protocols and joint open assemblies held in immigrant communities. During the 24-hour general strike of 2011, these links were used to connect and convey messages to various parts of the local migrant communities, as in the case of Madrid. Many social organizations concerned with the fate of undocumented workers also had links with the anarcho-syndicalist streams in the Spanish labour movement (the National Confederation of Workers and the General Confederation of Workers): this article focuses on the majority unions due to the emphasis on formal regulatory and organizing strategies. There was a dialogue between immigrant organizations and the trade unions, partly underpinned by national and local tripartite forums in the state, although individual links and networks remained important to these. Part of the challenge facing this relationship was that many immigrant organizations also had real sustainability issues. The most stable dialogue between the majority trade unions and immigrant community representatives was with established bodies with a strong role in international development.

Conclusion: Remaking regulation and traditions of struggle

The Spanish case is interesting because of the manner in which the trade unions have engaged immigrants and addressed their needs in a context of minimal traditions of activity in that area historically. This is partly driven by a realization that employers may use migration to undercut the working conditions of the Spanish population, and tensions may arise around local housing and employment issues. The response has been framed in two ways. First, it has been framed in terms of a broad class discourse that sees it as essential to locate immigrants within the regulatory processes of the Spanish industrial relations system – both for their own good and everybody else’s. The argument is that the gains and benefits of working-class struggle are best defended by ensuring that these are not undermined by working conditions that are below the negotiated levels, themselves an outcome of struggle in recent years. In addition, the framing of such strategies in terms of class is an attempt to link the question of immigration into a broader framework, where differences are understood in terms of the recent arrival (documented or undocumented) of workers, and not their ethnic or racial differences.

Our research detected a desire to not segregate the migrant issue so as to avoid creating fissures within the working class and new social tensions; hence, for example, the apprehension about the British trade union support of black workers’ sections. The aim is to pull immigrant workers into the regulatory reach of the union and into the trade union itself – although how successful this has been is another matter. Second, the trade union relation with the state has been a major mediating factor in this respect. That Spain does not have a strong neo-corporatist model is not really relevant, although some would argue that there is a strong dialogue between the state and labour at various levels (Guillén Rodriguez et al., 2008). The trade unions have worked with the state on various aspects in terms of migrant policy, social and welfare services, and learning and training. Forums were developed at many levels of the state – albeit with variable outcomes and structures. These allowed the different social stakeholders to coordinate their roles. They have also had a political effect in creating spaces for dialogue and reflection. In addition, there has been extensive state support for the development of various features of trade union work in relation to migration. In this respect, the emphasis of the trade unions has been on broad solidaristic social strategies in terms of the workforce and the state.

We could explain this in terms of the sensitivity to regulation and the nature of social dialogue and resourcing that exists in Spain; thus, this would confirm a path-dependency view (see Berman, 1998). Yet we can also see it as being fused with the identities of the two major unions which, while partially different, emphasize the socio-political dimension in terms of the CCOO and the social welfare dimension in terms of the UGT. In addition, we can see how internal legacies and historical practices based on historical memories and customs around emigration forged spaces and practices within these trade unions that became the basis around which innovation could be developed in terms of immigration. This has been central to the servicing of these new strategies, their staffing and their underpinning in ideological terms. Trade unions have almost become a link between the past trials and tribulations of the Spanish working class and the new immigrant communities. The CCOO project on emigrant memory was just such a case in point. The importance of linking strategies of regulation around cultures of struggle is therefore significant. This is a union movement that has drawn from its experiences and memories in relation to emigration as well as social- and gender-related organizational structures, and developed very direct forms of engagement when it comes to the elaboration of a strategy regarding migration. We also see much regulatory innovation and use of complex levers to engage migrant communities.

There are, however, some challenges in the manner in which this response has developed that may become more problematic in the immediate future. First, there has been a systematic dependence on the state for resources and the development of social dialogue, which may provide a challenge if political contexts change. While even some conservative regional governments engaged with the neo-corporatist approach to immigration and work during this period, there is no guarantee that this will remain in the way it has, especially given the fundamental crisis of the state that Spain has faced since 2008. This problem also brings into focus the fact that regional states vary, and there are indications that there may be a more fragmented approach to the question of social inclusion in future. Second, the core focus of the trade union response has been supportive social delivery through a range of educational and informational services. This has been done through the established apparatus of the trade union. One could argue that in the absence of a new wave of activists from immigrant communities, the trade unions have no choice but to proceed in this manner; however, there are possible democratic deficits and gaps in relation to the immigrant workforce that may need attention. Third, this raises the issue that there are still not sufficient numbers of activists or levels of activism from migrant communities. Much of the internal bureaucratic work of the unions still relies on its social and gender departments, directly or indirectly. This can be explained with reference to the fact that migrant-oriented occupations are mainly in less organized sectors and where there is a prevalence of SMEs. Fourth, there tended to be a separation in aspects of the work on immigration within the trade unions; however, this problem was being met by merging the secretariats for employment with immigration, and of linking the work of the advisory centres more closely to the sector federations and other equality and gender-related dynamics. Hence, the organizational politics of migration was worth noting: new regulatory strategies are built upon renewal and extension in relation to previous ones in many cases. This may appear to be an aside, but in countries such as the UK and the Netherlands, the access of immigrants to public-sector positions, which in turn has created stable structures of migrant representation, has allowed for a greater synergy, especially in the former, in terms of anti-racist and equality agendas and trade union agendas. Spanish public service trade unionists did not really see the immigration issue as being that pertinent – even if there were internal union officers related to immigration. This leads to the fifth challenge, which is the fact that immigration in Spain has taken place mainly in highly flexible and vulnerable sectors. That is to say, immigrants have not had access to many of the core jobs and employment issues. This has meant that the trade union, which in the main has its power base located in the ‘core workforce’, has been less affected by immigration. Immigrants see themselves in the main as working in the periphery and within a less protected context. This remains one of the main challenges to immigrants, the trade union movement and the workforce as a whole, as working conditions become more difficult to regulate in a coordinated and centralized manner. As the crisis of the Spanish economy accelerates, this disconnection between unions and migration may become an issue.

The article therefore presents an argument in terms of the two decades from the 1990s through to 2010, aiming to show that union responses harness and redefine regulatory traditions and resources through frameworks of struggle and negotiation. These provide significant organizational and ideological frameworks, but they can also create a tradition of response that can emphasize links between practices and institutions but not the direct link with migrant communities – although the disorganized nature of migration patterns may contribute to this. In addition, the post-2008 economic crisis is challenging these innovative trade union approaches.

Footnotes

Funding

The paper is an outcome of research funded by the Leverhulme Trust in the UK.

Biographical notes

Miguel Martínez Lucio is a Professor at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK. He has worked on various areas within Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management related to the nature of trade union change, the impact of marketisation and de-regulation at work, migration and equality, and the changing character of regulation and the state.

Stefania Marino is an ESRC research fellow at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester UK. She has worked on various projects within industrial relations with a particular focus on trade union representations of migrant workers, and has also worked on issues of gender and labour markets in a comparative context.

Heather Connolly is Senior Lecturer in the Department of HRM at Leicester Business School, De Montfort University in the UK having worked in research and teaching positions at the University of Warwick and the University of Manchester. She also worked for the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels. Her research interests are in the area of comparative employment relations and trade unionism in the European context. In 2010 she published a monograph entitled Renewal in the French trade union movement: A grassroots perspective (Peter Lang).

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