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Abstract
Reconstructed after the war under the aegis of the political parties, the Italian trade unions acquired a greater autonomy and an upsurge in strength after the ‘hot autumn’ of 1969. The PCI's close relationship with the CGIL, which is based on a Communist majority in that confederation, was thereupon made more complex as the three major trade union structures in Italy — CGIL, CISL and UIL — came closer together. Economic crisis in the 1970s, the PCI's turn away from its ‘historic compromise’ at the end of the decade, and the trade unions' setback in the struggle with Fiat led to a new situation, marked by the confrontation with the Craxi government, in which the PCI and the CGIL were in the forefront of the fight to preserve the policy of wage indexation. Despite a continuing close link between the two organizations, the ‘transmission belt’ relationship has passed into history. Each organization is currently in a state of crisis which goes deeper than any it has hitherto had to face.