Elections of trade union representatives were held across Spain in the first months of 1978.
[2] According to the state news agency EFE, elections were held in 29,918 companies for a total of 124,579 representative posts during the first three months of 1978 (these figures did however exclude the two largest companies in the country, the railways RENFE and Telefonica).
In the end (according to their own estimation) UGT had a campaign budget on the national level of 100 million peseta.
The organization opened a large campaign office in Madrid and produced key-chains, posters, stickers and an audio cassette.
[7][8] The campaign slogan of CSUT was "La CSUT, el sindicato que habla claro, da soluciones a los problemas y jamás se vende" ('CSUT, the trade union that speaks out, gives solution to the problems and never sells out').
[3][5] UGT emerged as the leading force in 23 provinces (and in Ceuta and Melilla) whilst CC.OO.
[4][10] However, the fact that a sizeable share of the seats were won by independents can be seen as a sign that still there were many companies (with a combined workforce of around two million) where the organized unions had yet to reach after the fall of the dictatorship.
In subsequent elections, the share of independent representatives decreased sharply.
[1] Although the underlying motives of the choice of different approaches to the electoral system are not entirely clear, one assumption is that CC.OO.
The results are here listed by these regions, but in fact they did not exist as political entities at the time.
The Socialist Party general secretary Felipe González visited La Camocha during the election campaign.
[14] In the Basque Country, the nationalist union ELA-STV emerged as the largest force with 23.3% of the delegate seats.
[17][18] In Castilla y León the elections were won by UGT, that became the largest force in six out of nine provinces.
[19][20] The elections in Catalonia were won by CC.OO., which had a strong backing in areas dominated by heavy industry.
At the calle Serrano editorial and administrative office, SU won 7 out of 22 seats.
got 976 delegates, UGT 680, USO 79, SICRE 56, CGT 10, SUF 70, CSUT 2, CDT 5, ELA-STV 1, INCA 2 and independents 188.