[5] Together they established a Technical Commission (Spanish: Comisión Técnica Impugnadora; CTI), which launched a legal challenge to the outcome of the Madrid Congress.

[11] Workers' Solidarity (Spanish: Solidaridad Obrera; SO) later split from the Madrid section of the CGT, opting to allow its members the choice of whether or not to participate in union elections.

[17] Following the Great Recession, the major Spanish trade unions called general strikes in 2010 and 2012, although they maintained an ambivalent position towards political and economic reform.

[12] In reaction to the moderate position of the mainstream unions, many within the rising anti-austerity movement moved towards anarcho-syndicalism, which led to a growth in the CGT's membership.

[17] The CGT's unions are most powerful within the automotive, telecommunication and transportation industries; it also has a significant presence in the banking, cleaning, education, healthcare and public administration sectors.

[12] In April 2023, after three decades of internecine conflict, the CGT, CNT and SO came together to form a "united action pact", with the intention of defending public welfare, fighting for equality and opposing repression against the labour movement.

In 2013, they issued a manifesto Dret a decidir, which linked Catalan self-determination with the anarchist policy of workers' self-management and called for the abolition of capitalism in Catalonia.

[23] The Catalan CGT is closely linked with the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), a left-wing nationalist party, and the two share members throughout the region.

[24] Emphasising their support for self-management and direct democracy, the CGT called on workers to mobilise in the streets and carry out civil disobedience "in defence of the liberties that the capitalist system denies us".

[25] In response to the political repression that followed the referendum, on 3 October 2017, the CGT called a general strike in Catalonia[26] and invited all trade unions to join it.

[27] The CGT, CNT and SO, together with other Catalan anarchist groups, signed a manifesto expressing support for self-determination, denouncing political repression, and calling for the establishment of workers' self-management and direct democracy in Catalonia.

[34] Since 2001, the CGT has advocated for the railways to be brought under social ownership and to be maintained as a public service, with guarantees of consumer protection and workplace safety standards.