“Solidarity was born to combat the unions that have usurped the representation of workers.” This is how Vox titled a press launch revealed on September 14, 2020, during which it reported Santiago Abascal’s participation within the founding ceremony of this union. The extremely chief mentioned that Solidarity was being launched “in the face of helplessness caused by corrupt and extremist unions.” Five and a half years after that day, the unions he was referring to (CC OO and UGT) proceed to dominate collective bargaining in Spain on behalf of employees, within the face of Solidaridad’s irrelevance within the dialogue with employers. According to information supplied by the Ministry of Labor to this newspaper, the union related to Vox solely participated within the signing of two of the thousand collective agreements signed in Spain in 2025. The Labor statistics don’t element the title of the businesses that signal the agreements.
The settlement statistics gather info on 1,017 agreements signed over the previous yr. The unions that participated in essentially the most negotiations and signed essentially the most agreements have been UGT (628 agreements) and CC OO (619), adopted by the Basque unions ELA (149) and LAB (99). Also notable within the USO statistics (94), the Galician CIG (59) and CGT (54). Below that illustration, Labor teams the remainder of the unions into “other unions”, contributors in 220 agreements. Solidaridad, Vox’s union, is positioned there.
The public registry doesn’t permit us to disaggregate this combined bag, however on the request of this newspaper the ministry has verified what number of agreements Solidaridad’s signature contains. In 2025 it participated in two agreements out of these 220. What’s extra, within the historic set of statistics there are solely 14 agreements signed by this union. The info comes from the Registry and Deposit of Collective Agreements, the place the unions themselves full the data and element which unions take part within the signing of every settlement.
This newspaper has requested Solidaridad to guage these settlement information, however it has not responded. Nor does it specify its variety of delegates in firms or its variety of associates. Yes, the big class unions do it, in addition to the regional ones: CC OO has a million members and 116,800 delegates; UGT, 984,000 members and 110,000 delegates; USE, 149,300 and 13,100; CGT, 100,000 and 5,500; ALS, 104,000 and 9,800; CIG, 88,000 and 5,500; and LAB, 50,000 and 5,500. Other necessary unions in Spain of a extra sectoral nature are the CSIF civil servants (261,300 members and 12,700 delegates) or the SATSE nurses (138,000 and a pair of,100).
The first basic secretary of the union, Rodrigo Alonso, is a member of the Andalusian Parliament for Vox and can repeat as head of the listing for the province of Almería within the elections on May 17. He was succeeded in workplace a yr in the past by Jordi de la Fuente, consultant of the Barcelona Provincial Council for Vox. Previously he was a pacesetter of the neo-Nazi occasion Republican Social Movement and likewise organizational secretary of the xenophobic group Plataforma per Catalunya.
Why would not Solidaridad have extra implementation?
Steven Forti, professor of Contemporary History on the Autonomous University of Barcelona and specialist in far-right actions, believes that among the many causes that designate Solidaridad’s restricted success is that “the class unions in Spain remain rooted in the territory and demonstrate resilience.” He additionally highlights that UGT and CC OO have achieved “important victories in the last seven years, with the approval of laws that have improved the living conditions of workers.”
Likewise, Forti factors on to Vox’s ideological positions: “Although Vox has tried, at least rhetorically, to add some touches social In his speech, his policies are ultra-liberal, even praising Milei’s chainsaw: how can a worker think that a union linked to Vox can defend their interests? Let’s say that it is not very credible and this obviously complicates Solidaridad’s work.” Thus, though Vox penetrates with rising power into the working class citizens, in the mean time its union doesn’t replicate that power.
For his half, Francisco Fernández-Trujillo, professor on the Complutense University of Madrid, believes that “its character as a satellite organization of a party” works in opposition to Vox. Although CC OO and UGT coincide ideologically in lots of approaches with the political left, they’ve been formally separated from the primary events for many years (CC OO with respect to the PCE and UGT from the PSOE). “His speech is individualizing and agitates the ideas of the Spanish extreme right. I find it difficult for anyone who wants to protect their working conditions to see reliability in this organization in this sense,” he provides.
Fernández-Trujillo is aware of the Solidaridad case carefully as a result of the sector on which his doctoral thesis targeted (From precariousness to battle. The case of digital meals supply platforms in Spain) is likely one of the most related for the union.
This specialist maintains that Solidaridad’s “niche of intervention” is in “those sectors that involve a neoliberalizing reformulation of work, aimed at the individualization of labor relations, or sectors that for different reasons have been exposed and challenged by reactionary and authoritarian positions.” Among them, he cites safety, labor sectors with “competition from migrant workers,” the place the apply of conventional unions “has left aside a part of the workforce as temporary and outsourced” and the place minority unionism “has not been able to reach.”
The union elections at Glovo (underway in current months, as a result of laborization to which the corporate has been pressured) introduced collectively a number of of those parts and Solidaridad made an effort to battle in them. In January, Solidaridad’s personal web site devoted a particular tab to “riders”—already retired—, simply within the midst of those union elections.
Then, a number of days earlier than the elections within the province with essentially the most supply employees, Madrid, a WhatsApp channel of the union with 900 members was bustling. “We do not come to guide lambs, we come to awaken lions. A different company is impossible with the same old ones. It is time for those who live off subsidies and your efforts to tremble!” mentioned Solidaridad in a message on January 21, 4 days earlier than the Madrid elections.
Despite these efforts, they barely get representatives on Glovo. In the primary elections held to date, these in Madrid, they obtained three delegates out of the 25 within the operating. In different provinces, CC OO and UGT have additionally gained very clearly and Solidaridad has not obtained a single consultant aside from the three from Madrid, regardless of its efforts to achieve illustration within the sector. Of the 137 delegates elected in whole, CC OO has achieved 80, UGT 33 and different unions 24, amongst that are the one three Madrid-based Solidaridad.
The European panorama
Forti signifies that the European excessive proper makes use of two methods to penetrate the union world: “Either they create their own union, as in the case of Solidarity and the Italian General Union of Labor (UGL), or they try to penetrate existing unions, as, for example, in France.”
In the Italian case, Forti signifies that UGL is “the transformation of the neo-fascist union CISNAL, linked to the Italian Social Movement, which after 1945 defended fascist corporatism.” It signifies that it continues to be a “minority” union with little presence in firms, “nothing comparable to the three large unions: CGIL, CISL and UIL.” “The Meloni Government has given him a lot of visibility and support, so he has scored some victory,” provides the specialist from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The basic secretary of UGL participated within the founding ceremony of Solidaridad in 2020.
Dominique Andolfatto, professor of Political Science on the University of Burgundy and specialist in commerce unionism, maintains that French unions “are today very autonomous and there are no longer links – beyond ideological ones – with political parties.” “There are no relations between them and far-right organizations, in particular National Regrouping.” [el partido de Marine Le Pen]. However, the completely different union organizations are roughly permeable to sure excessive proper concepts,” adds this specialist. However, he emphasizes that the two main unions in the country (CGT and CFDT) “systematically exclude their militants or associates who publicly place themselves in favor of the intense proper.”
“National Regrouping,” Andolfatto continues, “develops a very social discourse, even a kind of discourse inspired by what could be considered a primary Marxism.” Forti believes that this vocation is very different from that of Vox and, at the same time, that of Solidarity. “All far-rights are defenders of the neoliberal mannequin, however in different international locations, corresponding to Italy or France, each up to now and within the current the far-right have proven extra social sensitivity. This will not be the case with Vox,” he believes.
In October 2024, Solidaridad announced the launch of the Confederation of Patriotic Unions, “with the objective of defending the sovereignty of nations as a fundamental pillar for the protection of workers,” indicated the union’s press release. Neither that statement details which other European workers’ associations are part of this confederation nor does Solidaridad specify it when asked by this newspaper.
Ludovic Voet: “They should not genuine unions”
The majority centers in Europe are organized in the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), of which UGT and CC OO are part along with 92 other unions that represent some 45 million European workers. Ludovic Voet, confederal secretary of the organization, considers that the unions linked to the extreme right “are not authentic unions.” “A union exists to unite employees in an effort to enhance their working circumstances, salaries and rights. What we see in organizations linked to the intense proper is the alternative. They divide employees, unfold hatred and weaken collective group,” says Voet, who answers questions from EL PAÍS by email. He points directly to Solidaridad, “created in the orbit of Vox, with a very explicit objective: to compete with traditional unions, introduce far-right ideas into the workplace and act as a transmission belt for a political project.”
Voet emphasizes that these organizations “often have difficulty consolidating themselves as real unions” because “the workers are not naive.” “That is why many of those organizations, even after they declare to have many members, have problem profitable union elections or constructing actual affect. We see this, for instance, with initiatives like Zentrum in Germany, which have had restricted success in labor illustration,” adds Voet, before qualifying: “On the opposite hand, we should always not underestimate them. Their function will not be solely organizational, but in addition ideological. They attempt to displace debates inside workplaces, unfold narratives and divert consideration from the accountability of employers.”
https://elpais.com/economia/2026-04-17/el-sindicato-de-vox-no-consigue-penetrar-en-las-empresas-mas-de-cinco-anos-despues-de-su-fundacion.html