The General Confederation of Labor (in Spanish: Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT) is a national trade union federation in Argentina founded on September 27, 1930, as the result of the merger of the U.S.A (Unión Sindical Argentina) and the C.O.A (Confederación Obrera Argentina) trade unions. Nearly one out of five employed – and two out of three unionized workers in Argentina – belong to the CGT, one of the largest labor federations in the world.
It was founded in 1930 by socialists, communists and independents to generate a plural union central. It had a socialist majority until 1945 and Peronist since then.
The CGT during the Infamous Decade
The CGT was founded on September 27, 1930, the result of an agreement between the Socialist Confederación Obrera Argentina (COA) and the Revolutionary Syndicalist Unión Sindical Argentina (USA), which had succeeded to the FORA IX (Argentine Regional Workers' Federation, Ninth Congress); smaller, Communist-led unions later joined the CGT as well. The COA, which included the two unions covering rail transport in Argentina (Unión Ferroviaria and La Fraternidad), was the larger of the two with 100,000 members; the USA, which included, telephone, port, tramway, and public sector unions, represented 15,000.
During the Infamous Decade of the 1930s and subsequent industrial development, the CGT began to form itself as a strong union, competing with the historically anarchist FORA V (Argentine Regional Workers' Federation, Fifth Congress). Centered initially around the railroad industry, the CGT was headed in the 1930s by Luis Cerruti and José Domenech (Unión Ferroviaria); Ángel Borlenghi (Confederación General de Empleados de Comercio); and Francisco Pérez Leirós (Unión de Obreros Municipales). The CGT became the Argentine affiliate of the International Federation of Trade Unions (an organization that both USA and COA had been members of for shorter periods).
The CGT split in 1935 over a conflict between Socialists and Revolutionary Syndicalists, leading to the creation of the CGT-Independencia (Socialists & Communists) and the CGT-Catamarca (Revolutionary Syndicalists). The latter reestablished the Unión Sindical Argentina (USA) in 1937. The CGT again split in 1942, creating the CGT n°1, headed by the Socialist railroader José Domenech and opposed to Communism; and the CGT n°2, also headed by a Socialist (Pérez Leirós), which gathered Communist unions (construction, meat, print) and some important Socialist unions (such as the retail workers' union led by Borlenghi and the municipal workers' union led by Pérez Leirós).
The CGT following the "Revolution of '43"
After the coup d'état of 1943, its leaders embraced the pro-working class policies of the Labour Minister, Col. Juan Perón. The CGT was again unified, due to the incorporation of many unionists who were members of the CGT n°2, dissolved in 1943 by the military government.
When Perón was separated from the government and confined on Martín García Island, the CGT called for a major popular demonstration at the Plaza de Mayo, on October 17, 1945, succeeding in releasing Perón from prison and in the call for elections. Founding on the same day the Labour Party (Partido Laborista), the CGT was one of the main support of Perón during the February 1946 elections. The Labor Party merged into the Peronist Party in 1947, and the CGT became one of the strongest arms of the Peronist Movement, as well as the only trade union recognized by Perón's government. Two CGT delegates, the Socialist Ángel Borlenghi and Juan Atilio Bramuglia were nominated Minister of Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs, respectively. Colonel Domingo Mercante, who was perhaps the military officer with the closest ties to labor, was elected Governor of Buenos Aires (a key constituency).
The number of unionized workers grew markedly during the Perón years, from 520,000 (of which half belonged to the CGT) to over 2.5 million (all belonging to the CGT's 2,500 affiliated unions). His administration also enacted or significantly extended numerous landmark social reforms supported by the CGT, including: minimum wages; labor courts; collective bargaining rights; improvements in housing, health and education; social insurance; pensions; economic policies which encouraged import substitution industrialization; growth in real wages of up to 50%; and an increased share of employees in national income from 45% to a record 58%.