LAB (Basque union)

LAB

Nationalist/Patriotic Workers' Committees
Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak
Founded	1974
Headquarters	Bilbao
Location	Basque Country
Members	50,000
Key people	Garbiñe Aranburu, general secretary
Affiliations	World Federation of Trade Unions
Website	lab.eus

Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB, Basque for "Nationalist Workers' Committees") is a Basque left-wing nationalist and separatist trade union^[1] operating mainly in the Basque Country under Spanish rule currently led by Garbiñe Aranburu.

It was created in 1974 by Jon Idigoras among others. They are part of the Basque National Liberation Movement, an aggregation of leftist Basque nationalist forces including the former illegal paramilitary organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the banned political parties Batasuna and Segi. It is supported by around 50.000 affiliates.^[2][3]

The union is legal and it is one of the four major organisations of its kind in the Basque Country. In the last decades it has mostly collaborated with the other nationalist union, ELA, while both have been opposed often by the Spanish-wide trade unions, UGT and CC.OO., that make up their own bloc.

In 2019 it had 19.1% of the labour delegates in the Basque Autonomous Community, being the second biggest union after the also left-wing and abertzale Basque Workers' Solidarity (ELA).^[4] In Navarre the union has similar results, with a total of 1054 labour delegates, 16.95% of the total, being the fourth largest union after UGT, ELA and Workers' Commissions.^[5]

References

1. Faraldo, José M. (2010), "Spain: The Common Experience of Transition and a Military Coup", Solidarity with Solidarity: Western European Trade Unions and the Polish Crisis, 1980–1982, Lexington Books, p. 54
2. "50.000 afiliatuen langa igarota heldu da LAB 50. urtemugara". Berria (in Basque). 2024-04-08. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
3. 'LAB será un pilar fundamental en los cambios políticos y sociales' Archived 2012-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, Gara, June 17, 2012
4. EFE (2019). ELA presume de una representación histórica del 41,6 % en el País Vasco. Diario Vasco.
5. «UGT cierra 2019 como primer sindicato, seguido de CCOO, ELA y LAB, el que más crece». Noticias de Navarra. 11 de febrero de 2020.