Definitive Report - Report No 157, June 1976

Case No 679 (Spain) - Complaint date: 14-SEP-71 - Closed

70. The Committee examined these different cases, with the exception of Case No. 812, at previous sessions and submitted, at those sessions, interim reports to the Governing Body, which approved them. The complaints which are the subject of Case No. 812 were submitted by the International Metal Workers' Federation (IMF) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). They are contained in communications dated 17 January 1975 (from the IMF) and 31 January 1975 (from the WCL). The IMF submitted further information on this case in a communication dated 3 February 1975.

1. 70. The Committee examined these different cases, with the exception of Case No. 812, at previous sessions and submitted, at those sessions, interim reports to the Governing Body, which approved them. The complaints which are the subject of Case No. 812 were submitted by the International Metal Workers' Federation (IMF) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). They are contained in communications dated 17 January 1975 (from the IMF) and 31 January 1975 (from the WCL). The IMF submitted further information on this case in a communication dated 3 February 1975.
2. 71. The Government submitted information on all these cases in a letter dated 22 January 1976.
3. 72. Spain has ratified neither the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) nor the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

• Cases Examined by the Committee on Previous Occasions
  73. 73 Case No. 658 deals with the arrest of the following trade unionists: Enrique Múgica Herzog, Nicolás Redondo Urbieta, Ambrosio Guttiérrez González, Felipe González Márquez and Cristóbal Caliz Almirón. According to the complainants the persons named had been charged with the offence of illicit association and one of them also with that of illegal propaganda. The Government had stated on 23 October 1972 that the persons in question had been arrested for having organised subversive groups to make attacks against the security of the State and for having been found in possession of propaganda inciting to violence. All the accused were at liberty.
  74. 74 The allegations still pending in Case No. 678 concern the arrest of the following trade union leaders and workers: Carmen Frías Arroyo, Angel de la Cruz Bermedo, José Maria Zufiaur Narvaiza, José Luis Longarte Fernández, José Luis Zunzarren Aberasturi, Manuel Zaguirre Caro, Antonio Martinez Ovejero, Nicolás David Mora, José Luis Aldasoro, Isidoro Gálvez Garcia and José Maria de la Hoz. According to the Government, these persons were accused of promoting or engaging in activities designed to establish a subversive organisation and that they had been released on bail. Allegations were also made concerning the arrest of other workers on the occasion of demonstrations organised by the workers at the Bazán Dockyard in El Ferrol in March 1972.
  75. 75 In Case No. 679 the allegations still pending deal with the sentencing of three workers to two years' imprisonment and fines of 10,000 pesetas for spreading illegal propaganda. The Government stated that these three persons had appealed to the Supreme Court and had been released on bail.
  76. 76 Case No. 684 concerns incidents which occurred at the firm of SEAT in Barcelona in October 1971. About 20 persons had been arrested and brought before the courts. In a communication dated 8 February 1973, the Government stated that these persons had been released on bail.
  77. 77 Case No. 697 concerns the arrest of six workers (Maria Cristina Valverde, Maria Inés Dueñas, Josefina Anguiano Alfonso, held in the prison of Vitoria, and Justiniano Baranda Otero, Blanca Pera Sarasua and Alicia Ayala Velasco, held in the prison of Beasain in Bilbao) in connection with strikes which had occurred in the Michelin factory in Vitoria. The Government had stated in a communication dated 10 October 1974 that all these persons had been released by order of the examining magistrate who had not yet set a date for the hearing.
  78. 78 The complaints presented to the Committee in Case No. 704 concern the detention and subsequent conviction by the Supreme Court of Marcelino Camacho, Nicolás Sartoríus, Eduardo Saborido and Francisco Garcia Salve, Fernando Soto Martin and Juan Marcos Muñiz Zapico, Luis Fernández Costilla, Francisco Acosta Orge, Miguel Angel Zamora and Pedro Santiesteban for belonging to workers' Committees. The Government stated that for all the accused, the time spent in preventive custody had been deducted from their sentences and that this being the case, Francisco Acosta, Luis Fernández Costilla, Pedro Santiesteban and Miguel Angel Zamora had been released at once.
  79. 79 The allegations still pending in Case No. 722 concern arrests made as a result of movements of solidarity in Vigo with a strike organised in the Citroën-Hispania undertaking. The Government pointed out in their communication dated 4 October 1973 that out of the 103 persons arrested, 11 persons remained in custody awaiting trial.
  80. 80 In Case No. 735 the complainants alleged that Mr. Roberto López de Echezareta had been arrested on 2 November 1972 and that six other workers, José Sarasua, Juan Aizpurúa, José Alcibar, Ignacio Larrañaya, José Ugarteburu and Ignacio Bastida had been arrested a few days earlier. All seven were accused of belonging to the "Solidarity of Basque Workers" and of having carried on clandestine trade union activities within this organisation. According to the Government, these persons had been brought before a civil court with the exception of one, who, being on military service, had been brought before a military court. Apart from the latter, all had been provisionally released in the course of the last quarter of 1972.
  81. 81 In Case No. 780 the allegations still pending concern the arrest and detention in Cádiz at the beginning of February 1974 of the following trade union officials and workers who were accused of belonging to an illegal trade union organisation; Esteban Camaño Bernan, Sebastián González, José Luis Rodriguez Añino, Manuel Cañas Fernández and Isidoro Gálvez Garcia. According to the latest information supplied by the Government, these persons have been released on bail pending trial.
  82. 82 Finally, the allegations still pending in Case No. 803 date from October 1974 and concern the continued detention of persons arrested on the occasion of a labour dispute at the Fasa-Renault plant in Valladolid. According to the Government, all those arrested had been released with the exception of two who were given conditional discharges.
  83. 83 In all these cases, the Governing Body, on the Committee's recommendation, had particularly requested the Government to provide it with a copy of the judgements rendered or to be rendered, together with the grounds adduced therefor. The Governing Body had also requested the Government, in Case No. 780 (see paragraph 81 above) to give details on the acts of which the workers concerned were accused. Finally, in Case No. 704 (see paragraph 78 above) the Governing Body requested the Government to keep it informed of any further developments affecting the persons still in prison and, in particular, on any measures of clemency which might be taken as regards these persons.
• Case No. 812
  84. 84 The complainants allege that numerous labour disputes connected with the right to organise and collective bargaining had broken out since the beginning of 1975 in various parts of the country, citing those in the Olivetti and SEAT works, the Vizcaya blast furnaces, the Navarra potassium mines and the Barcelona firm of Cumbre, during the general stoppage in Pamplona, and disputes in many other parts of Spain.
  85. 85 The complainants refer in particular to the disputes and strikes that occurred in the Olivetti and SEAT undertakings. In addition to other claims, they declare, the workers in these factories had called into question the representativeness of the official trade union organisation and called for recognition by the company of workers' delegations elected during a workers' assembly. These events, add the complainants, resulted in a great many dismissals and arrests.
  86. 86 The IMF adds that in the case of SEAT 9 persons either working for the undertaking or suspected sympathisers were imprisoned and that 23 others were being held in police stations. In the Olivetti factory, adds the IMF, some 50 persons (workers and by-standers) were arrested and 17 of these were jailed for some time; the police took identity cards away from about 200 workers who are threatened with arrest or fines. It states that 2 of the persons arrested are still in jail and 15 let out on bail. The IMF names the two held in prison as Carmelo Gutiérrez and Justo Montero. In a subsequent communication the IMF states that the two trade unionists arrested had been released pending trial.
• Latest Communication from the Government on All These Cases
  87. 87 The Government's letter dated 22 January 1976 refers to all the above-mentioned cases. The Government states that all the persons referred to have been released under the Amnesty Decree, No.
  2940. 2940 of 25 November 1975, or had already been released before that date.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

• Conclusions of the Committee
  88. 88 The Committee notes with great interest that all the persons mentioned in the various cases before it have been set free. As regards the allegations dealing more generally with the trade union situation, the Committee expresses the hope, as did the Governing Body in a recent case, that the Government will be guided - even though Spain has not yet ratified the freedom of association Conventions - by the relevant principles of the ILO in developing its trade union legislation.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 89. In these circumstances, and as regards these cases as a whole, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to note, with great interest, that all the persons referred to in these separate cases have been set free;
   • (b) as regards the dismissal of numerous workers in the course of the strikes referred to in the complaints, to invite the Government to consider appropriate ways of reviewing their situation, as this would contribute to the improvement of industrial relations;
   • (c) to express once again the hope that the Government will be guided - even though Spain has not yet ratified the freedom of association Conventions - by the relevant principles of the ILO in developing its trade union legislation.