Reframing political relations and union autonomy within industrial relations: trade unions, political relations, and identity in Spain since the 1960s

The paper looks at the different political relations trade unions have developed across various spheres and how trade unions conceptualise their political relations and role as well as their identity in relation to these at different moments of time. Using the example of Spain since the 1970s, it aims to theoretically contribute to the debate on trade unions and the political – broadly speaking ‒ by reflecting on the breadth of the political and its more flexible forms, providing a more strategic view of how we need to map such relations across different thematic and historic dimensions and noting, especially, how key concepts such as autonomy and independence are framed and acted upon. The paper highlights the role of historical contexts, organisational identities, and strategic decisions during key conjunctures and how they shift the emphasis between trade unions and political parties, the state, and civil society actors. Furthermore, we argue that the political independence or autonomy of trade unions is not a static concept or apolitical feature within the strategies of trade unions but the subject of discussion and reflections that are important for understanding how they approach political relations across various fields.