Resumen de The union transition:: recognition of collective work

Pere Josep Beneyto i Calatayud

• The purpose of this text is to revendicate the intervention of the workers and trade union movement during the democratic transition in Spain, taking into account both their role in mobilisation (the great strikes of 1976–79) and their proactive dimension (the construction of a new model of industrial relations between 1980 and 1986), which were often ignored by both the dominant and alternative narratives of that historical period. To this end, we reconstructed the main phases of the process these groups were involved in, analysing their most relevant characteristics. We also look at the strategic debates that occurred within the trade union movement, its organisational evolution, and the social and institutional impact of its interventions during the transition, and call into question some of the most frequently used clichés used to refer to this movement since then