General Union of Workers

(Unión General de Trabajadores), a Spanish trade-union association affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. The General Union of Workers was established at a founding congress on Aug. 14-18, 1888, in Barcelona. The membership of the UGT rose from more than 15,000 in 1899 to more than 120,000 in 1914. The membership was about 500,000 in 1935 and about 2 million during the National Revolutionary War of 1936-39.

The General Union of Workers played an important role in rallying the toiling people and in organizing the struggle for the eight-hour day, equal pay for equal work, social legislation, and other demands. In August 1917 it led a general political strike. From 1923 to 1929 the reformist leadership of the union collaborated with the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. However, as early as 1930 the General Union of Workers participated in the activity of the antimonarchist opposition, and it contributed to the establishment of the Republic in 1931.

In 1934 a left wing was formed in the union, advocating united action with the Communist Party against fascism. During the National Revolutionary War of 1936-39 the General Union of Workers participated in the Popular Front; in 1938 it signed a pact with the National Confederation of Labor on united action for the organization and management of the industry of the Spanish Republic. After the establishment of Franco’s dictatorship in 1939, the General Union of Workers was suppressed. In France the union leaders set up the General Union of Workers in Emigration, which is affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.