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Show The Sait L tit Tribune Sunday, November 27, ISO F9 British Organized Labor, Once Militant, Is Now on the Ropes By Daniel Rosenheim Writer Chicago LONDON The United States isnt the only country where organized labor is on the defensive. In Britain, where trade unions historically have an unparalleled reputation for militancy, the labor movement suddenly finds itself on the ropes. Like their American counterparts, British unions face an array of adverse conditions that include a hostile government, determinedly dominated by organized labor. About 50 percent of all British workers belong to unions, compared to a Sun-Tim- es - businessmen, cost-conscio- mere States. in- been slashed, crows Richard Brown, deputy director of the Invest in Britain Bureau, a division of the Department of Trade and Industry that is wooing foreign investors for the U.K. To be sure, this is an economy still SSPomputers" o percent in the United Expectations are higher here, too. Despite a sluggish economic recovery and a persistent 12.5 percent unemployment rate, British workers in industrial sectors such as auto, coal and trucking are expected to win pay increases averaging 7 percent this fall, while pay hikes for unionized American workers are averaging less than 2 percent this year. But, since late 1879, union membership in the U.K has dropped an average 500,080 workers a year from more than 12 million to just a and the delittle over 10 million cline is continuing Militancy Ebbed Likewise, labor militancy has ebbed, with the number of working days lost to rtrikes dropping sharply from an average 500 per 1,000 employees during the last decade to 197 in 1981 and 190 in 1982. At the September convention of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Britains conser equivalent of the AFL-CI- creasingly conciliatory members and an indifferent, if not downright hostile, public. Add the erosion of employment by new technologies and job shrinkage in traditional manufacturing sectors and it isnt hard to see the source of labors setbacks. Union powers have 20 vative leaders won a resounding victory over the left wing to take control of the federations governing council. As in the United States, British labor is taking its worst beating in the secemerging tors, where dozens of firms ranging from British inventor Clive Sinclairs Sinclair Ltd. to the English operations of such American companies as Motorola, Digital Equipment Corp., and Wang Laboratories operate non-uni- shops. TUC General Secretary Len Murray claims unions are as relevant to microprocessors as to the spinning jenny, but electronics workers apparently are unconvinced. Membership Plummeting Meanwhile, working membership in such traditional strongholds as the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation has plummeted from 140,000 to 90,000, while Britains equivalent of the Teamsters union has seen its rolls sliced from 2.2 million to 1.5 million. And from shipbuilders to coal miners, workers are accepting plant shutdowns they would have through strikes, if neces fought a few years ago. sary The shift has been in the direction of the economy, said TUC economist Alan Cave. Indeed, labors scramble to catch up with Britains shifting economic sands finds a simple, telling reflection in the name of one organization: the Electrical, Electronic, Tele- communications Union. and Plumbing Predictably, the attack on labor meets approbation in business circles. One of the best things Maggie Thatcher has done is crack down on the unions, said Barney Carrell, president of Real Time Control, an entrepreneurial firm outside London that makes computers for point-of-sause. They were just completely out of hand." And, just as even predictably, union leaders moderate ones are sounding the alarm. Some Bright Spots There has been great progress in establishing a more cooperative relationship with management, said Pat McCartan, president of the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff le union local in Belfast. But some people are trying to take advantage of our reasonableness. Labors litany of woes in not without exceptions. A three-da- y strike at Vauxhall Motors Ltd. earlier this year won workers an 8 percent pay increase double the General Motors Corp. subsidiary's initial offer. Newspaper unions still have an iron grip on Fleet Street, where they have blocked the switch from hot" to cold" type. And a coalig tion led by the Post Office Engineering Union is waging a bitter battle in the courts and on the picket line against plans to return nationalized British Telecommunications to the private sector. Operating In Vacnum But, to date, labors response to the crisis has been disjo' ited and largely ineffectual. Like u.e heads of such American unions as the United Steelworkers, British labor leaders seem to be operating in a strategic vacuum with no coherent view of either the cause for their distress or the solution. Problems have been surfacing in six-uni- left-win- a traumatic way, concedes the TUCs Cave. The collapse of the Labor Party in the last election was the most disastrous political event in our history. Public opinion polls show that more than half of Britains trade unionists spurned the Labor Party and voted either for the Liberal-SociDemocratic Alliance or for Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers victorious Conservative Party. And while labor unions grope for a new strategy, the setbacks continue. 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