ABSTRACT
The powerful trade union played a role in Tunisian politics over this three-year period that continually elicited passionate debate, to say the least, between those who benefitted from the UGTT's actions, those who criticized the union and especially its central leadership for failing to meet its duties as a union, and, finally, those who purely and simply picked a fight with an organization they thought embodied the surviving wing of the former ruling power. First, while the central challenge for the UGTT in the fast-moving political situation was to fight for the political conditions that would enable it to retain power or expand its purview, the changes that Tunisia underwent did little to fundamentally alter the union's core identity at the nexus of unionism, politics and social issues. Second, the UGTT provided an innovative laboratory for exploring Tunisians' expectations for a legitimate mode of government acceptable to all.
