CCOO, Catalonia’s 1st trade union force
Around 50 years ago, the most conscious workers of Catalonia founded the first Comissions Obreres (CCOO, or workers’ commissions) in various regions and towns of Catalonia. They did so in order to defend their interests in unison and for achieving, through negotiation and mobilization, the improvement of their working and living conditions.
These Comissions Obreres started to spread from company to company in all sectors, since workers needed an organisation of their own, with a democratic functioning. During the difficult years of Franco’s dictatorship, the Comissions Obreres were at the forefront of the fight for the revival of the democratic rights and the national freedoms of Catalonia.
Those Comissions Obreres have become nowadays the first trade union of our country: the Comissió Obrera Nacional de Catalunya (National Workers’ Comission of Catalonia).
It is a trade union that counts on a big number of members and receives the most votes in all processes of trade union elections. It is also a trade union that places itself closely to all workers and is present in all sectors and regions of Catalonia.
What is CCOO?
CCOO is a trade union organisation made up by we, men and women that affiliate to it on a voluntary and solidarity basis in order to defend our common interests (general and specific ones) as an ensemble of workers, and to achieve a fairer, more democratic and more participative society.
CCOO is a demanding and participative trade union that aims at the grouping of the whole of workers in it in order to defend our claims and interests. The affiliation and participation at CCOO make us the main figures of the fight for our rights.
CCOO is a national trade union that struggles to achieve the complete equality of all people that live and work in Catalonia, refuses any kind of discrimination on the grounds of geographic or linguistic origin, and reaffirms the full solidarity of interests of the people of Catalonia with the other peoples of the Spanish state.
CCOO is a diverse trade union, in which we shelter the different professions and collectives alike. It aims at properly representing the interests of wage earners, recipients of allowances, unemployed people, immigrants and youngsters.
CCOO is a plural trade union, opened to all workers, whatever may their ideology, philosophy, political conception or religious belief be, so long as this respects human rights and democratic norms.
CCOO is a democratic and unitary trade union, in which we strive for achieving the unity of the ensemble of workers and in which we decide the trade union actions and our functioning as from the assemblies of the affiliated people and the directive bodies that we choose democratically.
CCOO is a trade union that operates in an autonomous and independent way from the economic powers, the State and the political parties.
CCOO is a socio-political trade union, in which we work for improving all that affect us as workers, both inside and outside the company.
CCOO is an internationalist trade union, from which we promote the solidarity with all peoples of the world that fight for democratic freedoms, and with the refugees and workers that suffer persecution on the grounds of exercising their trade union and democratic rights.
CCOO is a multiethnic trade union that aims at the gathering of the ensemble of immigrant workers in order to defend their rights equality and their insertion in our community.