National Confederation of Trade Unions Corporations (Kingdom of Italy)
The National Confederation of Trade Unions Corporations (Italian: Confederazione Nazionale delle Corporazioni Sindacali, CO.NA.CO.SI.) is the workers' national, official and public trade union centre, established back in 1922 in order to provide a coordinating body for the workers' side of the Corporations. The Confederation, as it is widely known, between 1948 and 1966 changed its name in Italian General Confederation of Labour (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, C.G.I.L.).
While between 1926 and 1947 the CO.NA.CO.SI. was strictly subordinated to the National Fascist Party, with the 1948 Labour Relations Act the C.G.I.L. (since 1966 again CO.NA.CO.SI.) gained autonomy and was subordinated "only" to the supreme State leadership, in order to actually implement the corporatist democracy.
The CO.NA.CO.SI. is divided into 21 regional federations and 24 national industrial unions.
Functions
The National Confederation of the Trade Union Corporations has, by law, the exclusive representation of the workers, with the commitment to the priority achievement of the national interest.
Both the Confederation and the individual Trade Union Corporations are bodies of public law of the state administration, with "functions of conciliation, coordination and organization of production" (together with the representation of employers) and the individual Corporations are subject to common management with the relevant organization of the employers.
Ideological tenets
From an ideological point of view, the Fascist Unionism finds its function in representing the interests of the workers in the Corporation, which in turn is responsible for determining the reference objectives for the single professional category and for providing the whole of activities geared towards production as well as individual producers.
Fascist Unionism, through class collaboration, leads into the Corporation, which must this make collaboration systematic and harmonious, safeguarding property in its social function and respecting individual initiative in the sphere of national economic policy.
Member organisations
Established Union Corporations (i.e. workers' branches of the Corporations) are twenty-four, of which eight of the agricultural and industrial productive sector, eight of industrial and commercial productive sector, and six of the services productive sector. In addition, there are two Corporations for artists and intellectuals. In addition to the 24 Corporations, there is the Sea Workers' Federation (Federazione dei Lavoratori del Mare), which is counted and represented as a single Corporation but crosses several Corporation and includes also non-economic organizations.
