The object of study of this thesis, entitled “Trade union models in the world of the factory (1976-1982)”, is the analysis of the organization and the main demands of the working class in the Transition to six of the most important metal companies in Catalonia during the last years of the Franco regime and the Transition: SEAT, ENASA, Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima, Hispano Olivetti, Motor Ibérica and Roca Radiadores. Through his study, this work collects how the labor movement evolved in these factories (from its beginnings in the late fifties to 1982) and what were its main demands. The study of the workers’ struggle of these companies has been developed following the most important demands, based on the actions they promoted to defend them, and which are cataloged in: the improvement of working conditions and wages, the defense of democratic freedoms and defense of jobs. This work has not addressed other issues, also important for the working class of the time, such as the national issue in Catalonia, as it has focused essentially on the problems inside the factory. Nor has a study been made of women in the factory because the chosen companies belong to the metal sector, and although there was a female presence in these factories (mainly in the administrative field), in the assembly line the immense most of them were men, although these companies have featured prominent trade unionists in the trade union struggle, such as Isabel López in SEAT. The chronological framework in which this thesis is framed begins in 1976, after the death of the dictator, until 1982
However, the first chapter is a summary of the labor movement, year by year, in each of these factories, from about 1958 to 1975, which serves to place the labor struggle in each company at the beginning of the Transition. . On the other hand, putting a date as an end point for this study has been a complex fact, since if we look at the evolution of the union, the end of the 9th transition could occur in 1985 with the approval of the Organic Law on Freedom of Association (LOLS) of 2 August of that year, which finally gave definitive protection to trade unions or in 1986, when Law 4/1986, of 8 January on Heritage, was approved. Accumulated trade union, and which put an end to a decades-long demand for the return of trade union heritage, taken by the Franco regime to the workers’ unions before the dictatorship. Instead, in this thesis 1982 has been chosen, understanding that there are sufficient changes in both the political (PSOE victory in the October elections) and trade union (where the model of union representation has already been consolidated and , in addition, it is the moment in which the UGT surpasses CCOO for the first time in the union elections, except in the communities of Catalonia and Madrid) like closing a stage of the labor movement in Spain.
