Interim Report - Report No 147, 1975

Case No 697 (Spain) - Complaint date: 14-APR-72 - Closed

1. 240. The Committee has examined this case already (at its 64th and 67th Sessions, in May 1973 and May 1974 respectively), and on each occasion submitted an interim report to the Governing Body. These reports ;appear in paragraphs 97-101, 114-116 and 121(d) of the Committee's 137th Report and in paragraphs 88-97 of its 144th Report.
2. 241. 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. 97).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 242. The ICFTU originally alleged that six workers, members of the General Workers' Union (GWU), had been arrested and held at the disposal of the Public Order Tribunal for participating in demonstrations of sympathy with workers who had been victimised on account of strikes at the Michelin factory in Vitoria. The ICFTU gave the names of the persons concerned: Maria Cristina Valverde, Maria Inés Dueñas, Josefina Anguiano Alfonso (imprisoned in Vitoria), and Justiniano Baranda Otero, Blanca Pera Sarasua and Alicia Ayala Velasco (imprisoned in the Beasain prison, Bilbao).
2. 243. The Government denied that the persons in question had been arrested because of a sympathy strike or any other demonstration of sympathy with the workers of the Michelin factory in Vitoria. The Government stated that they had been detained and charged, and that they had been provisionally released.
3. 244. At its 67th Session the Committee took due note of this information and recommended that the Governing Body ask the Government to state what court is hearing the case and to provide copies of the judgments once they have been given.
4. 245. In a communication dated 10 October 1974, the Government confirmed that, as the complainant had indicated, the Public Order Tribunal was the competent court. It also stated that the Court was made up of career magistrates, judges and officials of the Public Prosecutor's office and that all legal safeguards were provided. Furthermore, all those who had been implicated in the disturbances at the Michelin factory had been released by order of the Examining Magistrate, who had not yet decided on a date for the hearings to begin.

246. The Committee takes due note of this additional information. It recommends the Governing Body to ask the Government to let it have the text of the judgments rendered together with the grounds adduced therefor, it being understood that, once this information is received, the Committee will submit a further report.