The union fact. The greatest representativeness. Professional and business associationism. Balance and reform proposals

Abstract

Freedom of association is the axis of the constitutional system of labor relations, which also includes the right to strike, the right to collective bargaining, the right to adopt measures of collective conflict and the mandate to promote the participation of workers in the company, and regarding which the clause of constitutionalization of unions and business associations acts as a kind of nutrient or institutional support. The legal problems are not insurmountable or especially serious in the constitutional framework, nor in its development legislation. That does not mean, however, that the regulation of our labor relations system completely lacks interpretative doubts, as has happened, notably, with regard to the criteria of representativeness or, in a broader structure, as regards the subjective scope of freedom of association. Neither does it mean that the attitude of the public authorities regarding what has been known as a “union event” is completely resolved, which in its most natural sense refers to the pure union scenario, with its actors, its inclinations and its characteristic features, but that in the constitutional jurisprudence it seems to adopt rather the sense of a directive directed to the consolidation of union organizations of broad territorial and functional base. Another interesting fact in our system of professional relations has been the progressive expansion of the rights of organization and collective action beyond the contract contours to the public service, and to autonomous work, always with the pertinent qualifications and modulations.