Last modified: 2009-05-30 by eugene ipavec
Keywords: spain | union | galician unions' confederation |
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![[Workers' Commissions (Spain)]](../images/e/es_ccoo1.gif) Flag image by Jorge Candeias, 29 Aug 2003 |
![[Workers' Commissions (Spain)]](../images/e/es_ccoo2.gif) Vertical Flag image by Jorge Candeias, 29 Aug 2003 |
I found a newspaper article about a general strike that took place in Spain last year. In a black and white photo, several flags are seen, including a vertical flag of Comisiones Obreras, one of the major Spanish trade union confederations.
The Confederation's website, at http://www.ccoo.es/, includes a logo consisting of white letters on red, so I deduced that the colours of this flag are likely the same.
Jorge Candeias, 29 Aug 2003
The colours of the flag are the same., but I don't see this vertical version many times. I believe that is not too much used; the most used is the normal horizontal flag.
Jaume Ollé, 29 Aug 2003
![[National Workers' Commissions of Catalonia (Spain)]](../images/e/es_ct-co.gif)
image by Jaume Ollé, 29 Aug 2003
In Catalonia CCOO uses the Catalan flag with national (Catalan) logo, instead of the state logo; the name of the union in Catalonia is COMISSIO OBRERA NACIONAL DE CATALUNYA, but logo bears the classical CCOO, more popular (for some time was called popularly "coco" that in stree Spanish means "head"). There is also a version used in Galicia.
Source: Flag Report 36
Jaume Ollé, 29 Aug 2003
![[General Union of Workers of Andalusia (Spain)]](../images/e/es_ugt-a.gif)
image by Jorge Candeias, 30 Aug 2003
The same photo that included the vertical flag of Comisiones Obreras I posted earlier, had lots of placards showing the logo of the Andalucian branch of the trade union confederation Unión General de Trabajadores. These, of course, are not flags. But the two cloths with the same logo that are visible in that photo are.
Browsing the web, the site of the spanish UGT is to be found at http://www.ugt.es/ where the symbol of the confederation is displayed as white on red. The "Unión Territorial" (Territorial Union) of UGT-Andalucía also has a website at http://www.ugt-andalucia.com/ and there is shown the respective logo, a bit different from the one of the main organization.
The logos, in general, consist of the sigla UGT over a pair of shaking hands. This, incidentally, is basically the same logo of the Portuguese UGT (more on that later). The main logo is plain, but in Andalucia the logo appears in a fancy 3-D arrangement, filled with perspective and dégradés. It also includes the word "Andalucía," in white, inside a white ring. In the flags, however, the name of the region appears outside the ring.
I made an educated guess about the colours in the flag, making them identical to those in the logoas seen in these two fragments of the big photo, each showing one flag.
Now, the portuguese UGT is kind of a "reformist" trade union federation, assembling trade unions close to the Socialist Party and to the Social-Democratic Party, usually more "soft" in the relations with the governments and the bosses than the larger and older CGTP-IN.
I have no idea if in Spain the same kind of relationship exists between UGT and CCOO, nor do I know if there is some international organization of centrist trade unions, but the similarity in the symbols and name between both iberian UGTs strongly suggests a close relationship between the two.
Anyway, if there is not an international organization, then the portuguese UGT basically copied the spanish one, since our confederation was created in the 70's (in this century) while the spanish one exists since 1888.
Jorge Candeias, 30 Aug 2003
Also exists as white logo in red disk on white or defacing an Andalusian flag.
UGT is historically linked to PSOE and CCOO to Left United, but in fact they are both close to the ruling party (indiferent who is it) and their relations are only go together to receive official subventions. Currently they are in fact yellow unions and their leaders start to have difficulties with the workers that, in last months, for at less three times, received them with stones.
Jaume Ollé, 29 Aug 2003
![[Farm and Rural-Environment Workers Union (Spain)]](../images/e/es_socmr.gif) Flag image by Jorge Candeias, 15 Feb 2007 |
![[Farm and Rural-Environment Workers Union Logo (Spain)]](../images/e/es)socmr.gif) Emblem [click for full size] image by Jorge Candeias, 15 Feb 2007 |
Number 430 of the Pública magazine, which supplemented the edition of August 22nd, 2004 of the newspaper Público had a long article about the (very bad) conditions agricultural workers work and live in the greenhouses of El Ejido, a municipality in Andalucia, southern Spain.
The article is profusely illustrated with photos, of which this one is the most interesting (for us) because it shows 4 green-white-green horizontal tribands with some symbol in the center. At first sight, one could believe they were flags of Andaluzia, but the symbol sets the record straight. It's the symbol of the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo y del Medio Rural (Medio can be translated here as "Environment").
More images of the logo and flags at http://www.soc-andalucia.com/.
Jorge Candeias and Antonio Gutiérrez, 15 Feb 2007
![[Galician Unions' Confederation (Galicia, Spain)]](../images/e/es_cig.gif) image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 09 Jan 2009 |
![[Galician Unions' Confederation (Galicia, Spain)]](../images/e/es_cig2.gif) image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 Sep 2008 |
Photo report of demonstration in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Kingdom of Spain, May 4th 2003, can be seen at the CIG website. In the slideshow, among the several photos with flags, we can see those of: Galicia (nationalist version), Confederación Intersindical Galega (Galician Unions' Confederation), Galiza Nova (Young Galicia, young nationalists), Nunca Máis (protest flag about the "Prestige" accident), and even a Spanish Republican flag (without CoA).
Francisco Santos, 09 May 2003
Galician Unions' Confederation looks like a demonstration banner, held on both ends (and at several midpoints) rather than a flag.
Santiago Dotor, 12 May 2003
![[Galician Unions' Confederation (Galicia, Spain)]](../images/e/es_cig3.gif)
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 Jan 2009
Yes, in photos of CIG (Galician Unions' Confederation) slideshows there are many demonstration banners. But we can see also flags of CIG, mostly with the letters in yellow. However, the logo-flag (nationalist Galicia+CIG) at CIG website) presents that flag drawing with the letters in white. I tried to reproduce both cases, based on observation of photos and logos at CIG website. The flag with the white letters seems to have a red which is not the usual "unions' red," [~204:0:51].
Francisco Santos, 12 May 2003
I see also this flag with letters in center (white letters), that is widely used, and vertical flags with white vertical inscription, but the red flag with white letters in canton I believe that is the official one. My daugther can see also this supposed official flag last week in union hedquarters, when, for a week, was a volunteer to clean fuel-oil (xapapote) in Carnota Beach, but she can't obtain official confirmation (no one that was present, know the rules about flag, if it exist).
Jaume Ollé, 12 May 2003
This is a Galician left-wing nationalist trade union, created in 1994 by merger of previous like-minded orgranizations. More details at Wikipedia and at the official web site (in Galician).
Its flag, as shown at official website (direct image link) is red with the lettering logo in white at the upper hoist (in modified Soviet style). The logo consists of the letters "CIG" in a very stylized sans-serif extra-open style, the "G" made from two separate parts — one identical to the "C".
Actual flags in use seem to have larger logos, taking up some times a full quarter of the flag area, or even more, and the full name of the union in small while letters below it: photo, photo, photo, photo.
The letters/logo may also be yellow, and in varying sizes: photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo.
…some times with black drop shadow and small black letters: photo, photo.
There are also logos on plain white flags: photo, photo.
(Here is what seems to be the flag of the metallurgy section of the union; see photo, photo – also, the feminist section, with red logo inside purple Venus sign: photo)
Flagoid representation of the union flag including yellow letters and star for utmost Soviet style; red with large logo overall: photo.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 Sep 2008
![[Canarian Inter-Union (Spain)]](../images/e/es}iscan.gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 25 Jan 2009
I spotted a trade-union flag in front of an hotel in Puerto d. l. C. The pattern was the same as a Canarian nationalist flag (the variant with stars all pointing to the top and vertically mirrored). But there were inscriptions in black capital letters "INTERSINDICAL" at the top end and "CANARIAS" at the bottom end.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 May 2007
The Spanish CGT (Union of General Labor, not to be confused with the French CGT) is another anarcho-syndicalist union that split form the CNT after a dispute about whether to receive government money in 1979. It is small, but is a functioning union, anarcho-syndicalist but more syndicalist than anarchist – as reflected in its flag, not being as Orthodox-anarchist as the CNT.
John Kalwai, 10 Jun 2004
