Basque Workers' Solidarity

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**ELA**

Basque Workers' Solidarity
Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna
Founded	1911
Members	100,000
Country	Spain
Affiliation	ITUC, ETUC
Key people	José Miguel Leunda Etxeberria, president José Elorrieta Aurrekoetxea, secretary general
Office location	Bilbao
Website	www.ela-sindikatua.org

Basque Workers' Solidarity (in Basque: Eusko Langileen Alkartasuna, in Spanish: Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos, ELA-STV) ELA) is the most influential trade union in Basque Country, having been created, as Solidaridad de Obreros Vascos, by members of the Basque Nationalist Party on June 10, 1911, in Bilbao [1].

It has been opposed to the influence of trade unions who appealed to a working class ethos (Socialist UGT and Anarchist CNT), advocating instead a Basque nationalist outlook. Initially, ELA-STV was centered on projects of mutual assistance between its affiliates, as a vehicle for social security. It expanded with much more success in Gipuzkoa and Vizcaya than in Navarra and Álava.

ELA-STV was caught in the fighting of the Spanish Civil War, and banned by the Franco dictatorship. It reemerged in 1976, during the transition to democracy. Today, it has over 100,000 members.