EUROPEAN TRADE UNION DIALOGUE TRADE UNIONS AND RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN EUROPE Country Study Italy Emanuele Toscano March 2023 THE ITALIAN CONTEXT ITALIAN TRADE UNION ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND THE INDUSTRIAL ­RELATIONS SYSTEM IN ITALY In Italy, worker representation in unions is almost entirely covered by three major confederations, which together have a total membership of over 11 million: In 2021, the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL; Italian General Confederation of Labour) had five million members, the Confederazi­one Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL; Italian Con­federation of Trade Unions) had four million mem­bers, and the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL; Italian Labour Union) had over 2.3 million members. 1 Alongside these major organisations, there are also several less representative sectoral and grassroots unions, including the traditionally left-wing radical Confederazione dei Comitati di Base (COBAS; Confeder­ation of the Council of the Base) and Unione Sindacale di Base (USB; Syndicate Union of the Base) and the right-wing aligned Unione Generale del Lavoro (UGL; General Labour Union). At the beginning of the 1990s, a profound transformation radically changed the Italian political system, leading to the disap­pearance of numerous political parties to which the three major trade union confederations(CGIL, CISL, 1 For CGIL membership statistics, see www.cgil.it; for CISL membership statistics, see: http://www.cisl.it/notizie/in-evidenza/ sindacato-cisl-nel-2021-crescono-gli-iscritti-con-un-incremento­di-quasi-l1-tra-i-lavoratori-attivi/#:~:text=Sono%204.076.033%20 i%20tesserati,)%20rispetto%20all'anno%20precedente; for UIL membership statistics, see https://www.uil.it/tesseramento_reg.asp. and UIL) were ideologically linked. 2 As a result, the cleft between the political parties and the trade un­ions widened. The Italian system of industrial relations was long characterised by low institutionalisation accompanied by a lot of grey area and peculiarities(Primo Cella/ Treu 2009). Therefore, it corresponded more to a plu­ralistic-competitive model characterised by a diverse range of collective bargaining demands than to a par­ticipatory-cooperative model, which is characterised by an intent to build and strengthen institutions while promoting the cooperation of social partners. The Protocollo sulla politica dei redditi e dell’inflazione pro ­grammata (Protocol on Income Policy and Planned In­flation) was the central guiding pillar of Italy’s indus ­trial relations system from 1993 until 2009. This proto­col was signed by the three trade union confederations (CGIL, CISL, and UIL) as well as by Confindustria , the largest confederation of employers, and introduced the 2 The CGIL was first connected to the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI; Italian Communist Party) and later to the PCI’s successor parties Partito Democratico della Sinistra(PDS; Democratic Party of the Left) and Democratici di Sinistri(DS; Democratic Party of the Left). Meanwhile, the CISL was tied to the Democrazia Cristiana(DC; Christian Democratic Party) and the UIL had links to the Partito Repubblicano Italiano(PRI; Italian Republican Party). 1