Italian General Confederation of Labour

The Italian General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union centre in Italy. It was formed by an agreement between socialists, communists, and Christian democrats in the "Pact of Rome" of June 1944. In 1950, socialists and Christian democrats split forming UIL and CISL, and since then the CGIL has been influenced by the Italian Communist Party and until recent years by its political heirs: the Democratic Party of the Left, the Democrats of the Left and currently the Democratic Party.It has been the most important Italian trade union since its creation. It has a membership of over 5.5 million. Along with the decline of membership within its political counterpart, the Democratic Party, its membership is in steep decline since 2013, with the percentage of pensioners in constant rise. On 1 July 2015, the number of working adults reached a ceiling of 2.185.099. The CGIL is currently the second-largest trade union in Europe, after the German DGB, which has over 6 million members.