The USB was born in 2010 when the Rappresentanze Sindacale di Base (RdB) ⁱ combined with the small Sindacato dei Lavoratori (SdL) ⁱⁱ and some minority groups from within the Confederazione Unitaria di Base (CUB) ⁱⁱⁱ. The RdB, the largest of the USB’s components, were formed in the early 1980s, and mainly organized workers in the public sector. The CUB was born in 1992, after the Confederation Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (Cisl) ^iv expelled one of its minority left currents. Established originally within the private sector, this organization entered into a federative pact with the RdB, forming the RdB-CUB, so as to establish a base union present in both the private and public sectors.

Other important rank-and-file unions at the time were the Confederazione Comitati di Base (Cobas) ^v - formed in the mid 80s by workers in schools and which is still based mainly in this sector – and the SLAI Cobas, present in some big metalworking and engineering (metalmeccaniche) factories, like Alfa Romeo in Arese and Pomigliano, and FIAT in Termoli, and Sevel in Atessa.

In an attempt to unify the action of these various organizations, not yet ready to unite on an organizational plane, the RdB-CUB, the Confederazione Cobas and the SdL organized a national assembly on 17 May 2008, which the following September paved the way to the constitution of a “Patto di Consultazione Permanente Nazionale” [Permanent National Consultation Agreement], and later on, during a second assembly on 7 February 2009, to the so-called “Patto di Base” [Base/Rank-and File Agreement].

Only three months later however, on 22 May 2009, a new national assembly of the RdB-CUB revealed the yawning chasm that existed between its two main components, along the fault line of a never-achieved merger, with the long-time leading group of the CUB not participating in the initiative and the RdB leadership using the assembly to issue the slogan of the “Metropolitan Trade Union” [q.v. “Marcia indietro: Il sindacato metropolitano”, il Partito Comunista, maggio-giugno 2009], an issue we will return to later.

This assembly would pave the way to the formation a year later, on 23 May 2010, of the Unione Sindacale di Base ^vi.

The constitution of the USB has been justified by its leaders on the grounds it was a decisive step towards the objective of unifying rank-and-file trade unionism, by overcoming the qualitative limitations of the latter and moving towards the building of a genuine, confederated class trade union “of the masses”.

However things didn’t go quite according to plan. The formation of the USB certainly unified a part of rank-and-file trade unionism but at the cost of a serious rift with the remaining part. Overall, therefore, as regards the objective of unifying rank-and-file trade unionism, it has been a backward step.

Also the USB is not yet the “mass” trade union, organized and powerful, that its leadership would have us believe. In fact, strength-wise, the rest of rank-and-file trade unionism isn’t actually lagging that far behind the USB, and this has been demonstrated in practice by several struggles in a number of different firms and a number of different sectors, e.g. telecommunications, on the railways, in Alitalia, IKEA and FIAT. And not forgetting logistics, where the USB presence is small compared to that of the SI Cobas and on a par with the smaller ADL Cobas, another rank-and-file union present in the sector.

All of this means it necessarily has to establish relations with these trade unions in order to take any action in defence of joint interests. But the position of the USB leadership, which considers that Rank-and-file trade unionism is ‘residual’ and a dying force, can only make achieving this objective that much more difficult, causing a serious setback as far as the general consolidation of the workers’ movement is concerned.

The latest blatant example of this was the non-participation of the USB in the national general transport and logistics strike in June 2016; a strike promoted – something as positive as it is rare – by all the other rank-and-file unions

Joint action, having already proved difficult at the company and sector level, then proved impossible at the confederal level; in fact, the refusal of the national leaders of the USB and CUB to co-ordinate their strikes goes back as far as 2010.

The balance sheet of the unification of rank-and-file trade unionism, since the formation of the USB, is therefore not a positive one and to pretend the problem doesn’t exist, by rather arrogantly describing the rest of rank-and-file trade unionism as ‘residual’, and trying to get us to believe that the USB can defend the workers and oppose the patriotic tricolore unions and the bosses’ regime all on its own, does not take into account the real balance of forces and is a serious mistake.

It is therefore necessary to take a step back, to relinquish organizational pride, and to patiently and obstinately rebuild a co-ordinating body to make links with other rank-and-file trade unions; that is the only way we will be able to cope with the increasingly challenging battles ahead, amongst which the struggle, already looking increasingly necessary, to defend the freedom to strike.

After it was formed the USB slowly but surely made its presence felt within the private sector, increasing its membership within the retail sector, logistics, among farm labourers, and among the metalworkers.

This was in part due to a continuous trickle of forces from the Cgil ^vii to the USB, both union leaders and general members. The most important episodes relating to this were the passing from the Fiom ^viii to the USB, in June 2016, of the national spokesman of the left minority group within the Cgil, “Il sindacato è un’altra cosa” ^ix, closely followed by a minority of that current.

This new influx of forces was also due – and in particular among the metal-workers – to the USB having signed up to the Testo Unico sulla Rappresentanza (TUR) ^x in May 2015: Sickened and disillusioned by the increasing submissiveness of the Cgil to the bosses’ interests, some of its leaders, union reps and militants decided to join the USB, opting for them as opposed to other rank-and-file unions both because it is strongest on the organizational level, and because by belonging to the USB they could continue to take part in one of the two kinds of Trade Union Representative body that exist at the company level ^xi and pursue a trade union activity which, even if it did accept the necessity for struggle, also considered trade union recognition indispensible – with the consequent right to sit at the company negotiating tables and enjoy so-called trade union ‘fitness for purpose’ (agibilità), that is, so-called trade union rights within the company – even if at the expense of the restrictions on the right to strike that abiding by the TUR involves.

Signing up to the TUR is a risky strategy: it might pay off in terms of more members and more RSUs won over but it places the union on an inclined plane, where its growth might come at the expense of its activity, with the risk of it becoming bogged down in consultations, or what is referred to in Italy as ‘concertative’ activity. Although this is not inevitable, it is a real and palpable danger we must not underestimate, much less ignore.

And it should be noted, by the way, that signing up to the TUR was also the result of a lack of will on the part of the rank-and-file union leaders, and in particular the CUB and USB, to promote a joint action to oppose it. Each of them acting on their own behalf, these organizations went their own way and made their own choices.

Adhesion to the TUR has become the principal polemical weapon used by the CUB leadership against the USB and it is used as an argument against the two organizations engaging in joint actions: opposition to the Inter-confederation Agreement on Representation features in all of the CUB leadership’s calls for a general strike; given that signing up to the TUR means abstaining from trade union action against it, this prevents the USB from supporting strikes declared by the CUB.

And that, incidentally, appears to suit the USB leaders. A case in point is the general strike in the transport and logistics sectors on 16 June, when the possibility remained open to the USB to strike on the same day with its own platform, something which however the leadership was definitely minded not to do, as on so many other occasions in the past. On the other hand the CUB leadership’s utilization of the TUR issue looks like it is exploiting the situation, prioritized as it is above the primary necessity of uniting the actions of the workers.

In short, the leaders of the two rank-and-file unions seem to mirror each other, dividing the struggles in the interests of their inter-trade-union war, and all to the detriment of the labour movement.

The USB’s growth in the private sector has seen a corresponding weakening, minor in quantitative terms, in the public sector. This is revealed in the figures from the latest RSU elections (45,799 votes in 2013; 44,455 in 2016) and in the membership roll (19,085 in 2012, 17,411 in 2015), which were also no doubt due to the law passed in 2014 which reduced the number of hours militants in public sector unions were allowed to carry out union activity during work time.

In some regions of North Italy – Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto – the USB was also badly hit by the split in February 2016 that led to the formation of the small Sindacato Generale di Base (SGB), which then went on to draw up an agreement with the CUB. Another episode, this, in the ongoing battle between the leaders of the rank-and-file unions which shows how illusory is the USB leadership’s claim to have risen above rank-and-file trade unionism and attained the higher level of class unionism – an objective we all share moreover – but by means of short-cuts that are still entirely compatible with the rationale of rank and file unions battling among themselves.

As for the SLAI Cobas, a number of factors have caused it to shrink drastically, namely: the closure of the big factory in Arese; the expulsion in 2005 of part of the Milanese tram drivers’ RSU and the provincial co-ordinations of Varese and Como, with the consequent formation of the AL Cobas which in 2010 joined the CUB; repression by the bosses, which in Pomigliano for example had a major impact; and the split in 2010 which gave rise to the formation of the SI Cobas. Also in decline is the Confederazione Cobas.

Today, therefore, we have two main inter-category rank-and-file unions: The USB and the CUB.

To them we can add the SI Cobas, which despite being mainly established in logistics – although there are a few exceptions –it is proving to be the most dynamic of the three, and the one which follows the correct, classist trade-union line most closely, as regards for example its insistence on workers’ united action. The SI Cobas has gone out on strike with the CUB on several occasions and also with the USB, using as criteria for such decisions whether or not a strike, and therefore the workers’ struggle as a whole, would be strengthened by its participation. For the same reasons it has also supported general actions promoted by the Fiom and the Cgil.

The conflict between the leadership of the CUB and the USB has been a factor ever since these unions were formed and it has got worse over time, despite the increasingly brutal attacks the working class has been subjected to. We can see no way that the current leaders will resolve the situation.

Nevertheless in each of these organizations there are workers and union representatives who are opposed to this behaviour. Our party’s trade union line consists of struggling, in every rank-and-file trade union, to promote unity of action in all struggles, at the company, category, confederation, territorial and national levels. This unity of action is the necessary basis for attaining unity on the organizational plane, which will only be possible if the workers’ movement is reinforced by an influx of more combative workers into these unions; something which will make dumping the mistaken lines currently being followed by the present leaders a real possibility.

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