Growing Whilst Declining: The Case of the Italian CGIL

Abstract

The crisis of the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, through which the Italian Communist Party has historically worked, is part of a more general crisis of trade unions not only in Italy, but in Europe as a whole. The ‘crisis’ in Italian trade unions is deeper than that in the more solid organizations, but less deep than in other Mediterranean countries. The ability of European trade unions to respond to these new challenges has varied. In some cases, especially in countries in central and northern Europe, the trade unions have managed to increase the strength of their organizations among active workers in the 1980s and to consolidate, although not in a very linear way, their ability to influence the political system. The considerations deliberately reflect a partial perspective in an attempt to bring into focus the size and the specificities of the crisis in the Italian trade unions.