The Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) is a Spanish

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

. Founded as a clandestine organization in 1961—during the dictatorship of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 19 ...

—the union was an outgrowth of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

organizations dedicated to

Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching, commonly abbreviated CST, is an area of Catholic doctrine concerning matters of human dignity and the common good in society. The ideas address oppression, the role of the state, subsidiarity, social organization, ...

, particularly on the dignity of work. Influenced by the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), which also had Catholic roots but was by that time drifting away from any formal relation to the church, USO declared itself from the outset to be secular and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

. Like the CFDT, after 1968 USO advocated ''autogestion'' (

workers' self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...

).Sonia Ramos González, «Unión Sindical Obrera: nacidos para desaparecer» (2014), Ruiz de Aloza (Granada), in Spanish. ''passim.'' After the Spanish transition to democracy, the group split, with one faction uniting to the Unión General de Trabajadores (historically affiliated with the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in go ...

or PSOE), another joining the Workers' Commissions (''Comisiones Obreras'', affiliated with the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

), and a third continuing as a small, independent trade union.

References

Trade unions established in 1961 1961 establishments in Spain Trade unions in Spain {{Trade-union-stub