Bilbao With 100,000 members, ELA, the Basque Labor Union, is the largest union in Spain’s Basque Country, which locals call South Basque compared to North Basque in the three provinces in France. Their size alone would make them a force to be reckoned with in this area of Spain, but as two of their representatives detailed over two hours with members of the Organizers’ Forum, their unique strategy and resources take them to another level in dealing with employers.
We were someone prepared for what we were to hear, because ELA had requested that we read several papers before the meeting, one of which was an academic study of their use of strikes as a union renewal strategy. Over recent years in looking at their future and that of other unions, ELA had significantly raised their monthly dues to about 28 euros and dedicated 25% of that amount, or about 7 euros, to significantly expand their strike fund. The paper argued, and this was backed up in the discussion we joined at ELA’s headquarters in Bilbao, that their ability to strike to back up their demands for workers they represented and to maintain them during the strike, no mater the length, had radically changed their union and led to a high percentage of victories.
They offered several examples of strikes that had lasted nine months or more. In most cases they would pay a percentage of the wages up to 1400 euros a month to support the strikers. In the cases where they organizing lower waged workers, like building cleaners, at 1400 euros, they were often paying strike benefits equal to the wages a member had been receiving while working. Strike benefits can’t exceed what a member had been making, but being able to almost match the wages at some workplaces gave them a powerful organizing tool.
Their general spending matched their strategy with what seemed like half of their staff, almost 150 people were organizers with other departments like communications being very small. Our BCGEU delegates with an equivalent 100,000 members, said their overall staff was close to 375, but they only had about 25 organizers in that department, even though their membership had doubled over the last more than 20 years.
For some of our North American labor delegates, where the laws allow many private and some public sector unions to be the “sole and exclusive” representative, understanding how organizing and bargaining works in an environment in which there are multiple unions was challenging. ELA explained that when they had 51% of a workplace, they controlled bargaining, even if others were also organized there and sometimes continued working even when ELA struck. We also spent a lot of time trying to understand sectoral bargaining, which exists in British Columbia and Quebec, but not in the USA. Much of this bargaining in Spain seemed to be at a company-wide level. With such a militant reputation, they did have some problems with firms from elsewhere in Spain or internationally seeking “sweetheart” agreements with more compliant unions, but they argued they were still able to operate effectively to block these efforts. ELA’s policy for the French provinces is not to organize workers or compete with local unions, but through its foundation to support social movements.
ELA is an impressive union with an exciting and effective model that would be the envy of many, but devastatingly difficult to duplicate.