LAB (Basque union)

Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB, Basque for "Nationalist Workers' Committees") is a Basque left-wing nationalist and separatist trade union[1] operating mainly in Spain currently led by Garbiñe Aranburu.

LAB

Full name	Nationalist/Patriotic Workers' Committees
Native name	Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak
Founded	1974
Members	45,000
Affiliation	World Federation of Trade Unions
Key people	Garbiñe Aranburu, general secretary
Office location	Bilbao
Country	Basque Country
Website	lab.eus

It was created in 1974 by Jon Idigoras among others. They are part of the Basque National Liberation Movement, an aggregation of leftist Basque nationalist forces including the illegal paramilitary organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the illegal parties Batasuna and Segi. It is supported by around 45.000 affiliates.[2]

The union is legal and it is one of the four major of its kind in the Basque Country. In the last decades it has been working mostly with the other nationalist union, ELA, while both have been opposed often by the Spanish-wide trade unions, UGT and CC.OO., that make up their own bloc.

In 2019 it had the 19.1% of the labor delegates in the Basque Autonomous Community, being the second biggest union after the also left-wing and abertzale Basque Workers' Solidarity (ELA)[3]. In Navarre the union has similar results, with a total of 978 labour delegates, the 16.43% of the total, being the fourth largest union after UGT, ELA and Workers' Commissions[4].