Definitive Report - REPORT_NO164, June 1977

1. 58. The Committee has already examined this case in November 1973 and November 1974. At each of those sessions it submitted an interim report. These reports are contained in paragraphs 395-398 and 411-422 of its 139th Report and in paragraphs 263-285 of its 147th Report and they were approved by the Governing Body at its 191st Session (November 1973) and 194th Session (November 1974), respectively.
2. 59. Spain has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), or the Right to organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 60. The Committee recalls that the case deals with events that occurred at San Adrian de Besós in March-April 1973. Following the management's refusal to discuss - except with the legal representatives of the official trade union organisation - the complaints submitted by employees of various undertakings who worked together at the power station, demonstrations were held and there were clashes between the workers and the police. The allegations still pending relate to the sentencing by a military court of Manuel Pérez Esquerre to four years' imprisonment and of three other accused persons to one year's imprisonment. In November 1974 the Governing Body, on the Committee's recommendation, had requested the government to transmit the text of the judgements delivered in the cases of the four above-mentioned workers.
2. 61. In a communication dated 26 October 1976, the Government stated that three of the workers concerned had been finally released on 22 May 1974 and that the fourth had been released under the Royal Amnesty on 31 March 1976.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 62. The Committee has always considered that it is incumbent on it to establish whether a trade unionist has been condemned for criminal offences or for normal trade union activities and, in order to do this, it has frequently requested the governments concerned to transmit the text of the judgements rendered in the case together with the grounds adduced therefor.