British Trade Union Blues

...Who is right about the denationalization is—or should be—less important to British union chiefs than its consequences...

...Walkouts were a dime a dozen and virtually all strikes were won...

...Under Labor governments they were given privileges that workers' movements in other countries had to envy—including the right to break contracts and additional freedoms from legal constraints...

...John Lyons of the power workers' union has commented, "The British people do understand us, and they do not greatly like what they see...

...THE LEGACY OF MYOPIA British Trade Union Blues BY NORMAN GELB London At the annual conference of Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC), held in Blackpool September 7-11, a union official rose to ask the assembled delegates an unusual question...

...They are staunchly anti-capitalist and especially opposed to the Tory government's much publicized sell-off of newly denationalized major British industries...

...Only one hand went up, and that half jokingly...

...To alter this perception, union officials—inspired by the public relations success of Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock's losing electoral bid last spring—are planning their own media campaigns...

...Should that actually occur, some of the other unions that have begun doubting the value of the umbrella labor organization lately will undoubtedly pull out too, weakening it still further...

...Most of the union officials present, however, considered the question in poor taste...

...But the right to strike is so deeply entrenched in British trade unionism, and strikes have been so central a part of the long, painful fight waged by British workers to raise their living standards, that Hammond has become an object of undisguised hatred among his peers...

...This can partly be attributed to the same factors that have been causing a decline in union strength elsewhere in the Western world —notably in the United States —over recent years...

...There were times during the '60s and '70s when the trade union movement was in an extremely strong position...

...Like it or not, Britain's trade union leaders must come to grips with the reality that a great many of the workers they represent have taken advantage of generous no-interest installment terms to pick up shares in British Telecom, British Oil, the British Airways Authority, and other giant enterprises nationalized by past Labor governments and put on the block again over the last few years by the Tories (with each share offer vastly oversubscribed...

...Howmanyofyou,' he wanted to know, "own shares in British businesses...

...Salient among these is the statistic showing that there are now more shareholders in Britain than union members, and that many of them are union members...

...Unlike the U.S., West Germany and other industrialized countries, though, British trade union leaders have an ideological frame of reference that their members not only do not share with them but increasingly resent...

...AFLCIO President Lane Kirkland, who attended the September TUC convocation—its 119th—noted that America's united labor organization originally molded itself in the image of the TUC...

...Massive inflation— reaching an annual rate of 26 per cent by the late '70s—ate away most of the wage gains...

...Both seem to be eluding British unions at the moment...

...Few of the delegates appreciated the real point being made by the man who asked the daring question— that they are out of touch with their rank and file...

...Since 1979, the year Thatcher was first elected Prime Minister, union membership in Britain has dropped from 55 per cent of the work force to 3 8 per cent...

...A though most union leaders blame their poor reputation on the predominantly Toryoriented press, a small group of them concedes that the movement has had a hand in creating its troubles...

...Such a turn of events would be regrettable because, even in its present battered condition, the TUC is probably the best available instrument for initiating the changes in trade union leadership that Britain needs so badly...

...Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calls this building a property-owning democracy...

...Locked into a syndicalist class struggle approach, they either don't understand the aspirations of their members or, if they do, dismiss them as temporary delusions fostered by the current wave of Thatcherism...

...His latest book is The Berlin Wall: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and a Showdown in the Heart of Europe...

...The suggestion that some of them might have personally connived in the taking of those industries out of public ownership came across as profoundly insulting...

...The lack of faith in union leaders demonstrated by so many British workers is largely a matter of unmet expectations...

...Norman Gelb is the NL's London correspondent...

...At their conclaves they regularly debate and sometimes endorse proposals for unilateral disarmament and the like, ignoring the fact that a large proportion of their members cast ballots for the Tories, who advocate contrary policies (and who have been busily passing antiunion legislation ever since taking office...

...And now Prime Minister Thatcher is claiming that she has done that for them...

...They also charge that the shares were generally underpriced when sold, producing a shortfall for the British Exchequer, and that too many of the bargains were grabbed up by financial institutions in the city of London—and they are probably correct on both counts...

...Most union officials denounce it as outright theft of public assets...

...the rest—a majority!—voted either Tory (30 per cent) or for the Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance (26 per cent...

...Less cosmetic measures are also being urged...

...Nonetheless, with rare exception union leaders have closed their minds to this truth and its significance...

...There may be some truth to his oblique (lattery of his hosts, but in addition to vigor and zest a successful struggle requires a rational battle plan and favorable circumstances...

...There have been calls for the expulsion of Hammond's union, one of the largest in the country, from the TUC...

...Arthur Scargill, far-Left head of the National Union of Mineworkers, confessed that he was a shareholder in the company that publishes the British Communist newspaper, the Morning Star...

...Moreover, a survey of British union members published by the (Tory) London Times has indicated that seven out of 10 want the power to stop their leaders from calling them out on strike without a secret ballot, and only 39 per cent oppose legal protection for members who do not join a strike when a majority votes for one...

...But rather than taking a leaf from American unions and seeking to extend benefits for their members beyond the workplace (pension protection, housing developments, etc...

...Undaunted, he insists that in contrast to too many of them, he is responsive to the views of his members, who vote on every important decision made by the union—an accurate assertion that has not raised his popularity rating...

...The chief advocate of no-strike deals is Eric Hammond, head of the electricians' and plumbers' union...

...The most controversial proposal of all is for no-strike agreements, which have already been signed with a few large employers...

...The message: Unions function for the good of Britain and its economy as well as for the benefit of members...

...These, it is hoped, will help the unions overcome their old image as compulsive troublemakers, ever ready to close down factories no matter how trivial the grievance...

...Thus despite their forcing despairing employers to eat humble pie, the British unions failed to deliver in full the better life they had promised the rank and file...

...Some union leaders, braving the ridicule of those fixed in their ways, want to adopt the approach of unions in the United States and provide various welfare and financial services for members—perhaps including special credit cards...

...or following the West German example and trying to gain a voice in managerial decision-making, British union leaders concentrated almost exclusively on here-and-now issues, mostly involving wages...

...In the general election last June, an unimpressive 42 per cent of union members cast their ballots for Labor...

...While admitting the formidable problems faced by the AFL-CIO at home, Kirkland assured the delegates that "like the Trades Union Congress, we have lost none of our vigor and none of our zest for the human struggle...

...Unfortunately, the victories too often proved empty...

...An overwhelming number of union officials are, by virtue of their active involvement in the Labor Party and its frequently bitter internal policy wrangles, equally politicians...

...Even in Scotland, where the Tories took their most devastating beating— and where the tradition of union solidarity is enormously strong—workers in firms starting up as part of the business boom apparently under way here exhibit little interest in joining unions...