Isabel Pallarès i Roqué

Isabel Pallarès i Roqué (1964 – 24 June 2021) was a Catalan teacher and trade unionist who was the first woman to serve as general secretary of a class trade union organization in Catalonia, a position she held for 15 years.

Biography As a teacher, Pallarès taught secondary education at Intersindical-CSC in the 1990s. Between 1998 and 2003, she served as general secretary of the pro-independence union, becoming the first woman in Catalonia to lead a class union organization. Pallarès was elected confederal secretary, a position that would eventually become general secretary in 1998 to replace Miquel Porter i Moix. After fifteen years at the head of the organization, she gave her testimony to Carles Sastre i Benlliure, who had accompanied her during her term as secretary of Trade Union Action. Later, the union was led by Sergi Perelló i Miró.

The years of Pallarès as the general secretary of Intersindical-CSC explain the evolution and the current positioning of the power station, which in recent years has experienced strong growth. She managed to move from a model of federated autonomous unions to a more confederal and unitary type organization and to make social and national demands more explicit and forceful. Pallarès was still active in the union's organs; she was part of its national secretariat. In the international sphere, Intersyndical-CSC consolidated the relationship with ELA and the IGC and opened intense relations with LAB, which led it to create the Platform of Stateless Nations Unions.