ITALIAN TRADE UNIONISM BETWEEN CRISIS OF REPRESENTATIVITY AND CHANGES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Abstract Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Italian confederal unionism (CGIL, CISL, UIL) has been undergoing a crisis of representativity, explained by the reduction in the rate of unionization and the difficulty of representing the new forms of employment produced by labor market reform processes in the last three decades. At the same time, it managed to defend the existence of national collective labor agreements, even if the attempts to overcome national category contracts have been more evident in recent years, but the same second-level negotiation has not gained more space. New forms of organization in the representation of precarious workers, outside the scope of the traditional union, and the greater dynamism of extra-confederal unions in the representation of immigrant workers are two elements that contribute to this crisis today. However, this does not mean the loss of its importance in the definitions of the regulatory norms in industrial relations and with the State on matters of collective interest in the world of work (social welfare, labor market, etc.).