The businessmen and strikes from stabilization to democracy, 1958-1978

Abstract

In the historians approach to Franco’s regime, the workers’ strikes have been regarded as a central instrument of opposition to dictatorship and fight for democracy. This view does not take into account the necessary counterpart: the employer, seldom analised and often seen under biased lenses. The strike became partially tolerated by the authorities after the adoption of the Law Union Collective Agreements (1958), therefore it had to be accepted by employers as a lesser evil, a necessary counterpart to increase the productivity of their business and successfully meet the challenge of economic modernization. The pragmatic attitude allowed employers to claim the regulation of the right to strike while negotiating the settlement of conflicts in their firms outside the official channels. During the seventies business suffered increased strike pressure and felt a lack of support from the authorities, a feeling that lead to create a new business association and pushed for the signing of a social pact as a mechanism for, inter alia, contain and channel conflict strictly within the workplace.