Crisis, EU transformation and union strategies: The impact of conditionality on the strategic repertoire of Spanish trade unions during the Eurozone crisis

During the eurozone crisis, the PSOE’s and PP’s governments implemented a series of reforms of the Welfare State and the labour market in exchange for financial help from the EU; what is known as conditionality. The trade unions, CC. OO. and UGT, responded to these reforms as the representatives of the sectors most affected by them. There are two narratives to explain trade unions’ strategies during the crisis. On the one hand, it is argued that trade unions used traditional political action to influence political decision making processes. On the other hand, trade unions have developed new actions either of a transnational character or related to typical social movements’ activities. The article explains why the crisis led to this new combination of trade union repertories calling on different sectors and levels of action. The main argument is that the EU conditionality led to the emergence of a new political regime that we have dubbed “neoliberal intergovernmentalism” due to the institutional and ideological changes that it brought about. In turn, this new regime impacted upon the political opportunity structure, triggering a strategic reorientation of trade unions