NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6575

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[Via misc.activism.progressive from PeaceNet's  apc.labor]
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Topic 202       IPS:Britain: Trade Congress Union
hrcoord apc.labour       3:07 pm  Sep 10, 1992
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From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS:Britain: Trade Congress Union

/* Written 12:13 am  Sep 10, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: BRITAIN: Trade union congress opens under ominous clouds


an inter press service feature

by candy gourlay

london, sep 07 (ips) -- there were ominous signs to monday's start
of a conference of britain's biggest trade union, now trying to
come to grips with growing unemployment in a flagging economy.

public television's british broadcasting corporation (bbc)
quietly decided not to air the full conference of the trade union
congress (tuc) for the first time in 30 years. also new opposition
labour party leader john smith will not address the meeting,
though the unions were instrumental to the party's creation.

and for the first time in british history, the head of an
employers organisation -- howard davies, director-general of the
confederation of british industry (cbi) -- will be delivering a
speech to the unions. his address will be on tuesday -- the second
day of the three-day conference.

in a country where trade unions used to hold industry in terror
of wildcat strikes and stoppages, it is a great climb-down for the
tuc which counts just over eight million members, a plunge in
membership to 1960s figures. since the conservative party took
power in 1979, affiliated membership of the tuc has fallen by over
a third.

davies acceptance to address the conference is a ''shrewd move'',
says colin crouch, an authority on trade unions at trinity college
in oxford, who notes that it is typical in countries with weak
labour movements for management to sidle close to the unions and
hold out its friendship.

''until now, british industry employers have taken the view that
we should just bash them (unions) while they're down,'' says
crouch, ''but this is a way for cbi's employers to make overtures
towards the unions, give them some status that could be useful in
future bargainings.''

it is also an attempt by the pro-government cbi to signal its
displeasure at the ruling conservative party's handling of the
economy which continues to move from bust to bust, he adds.

''anyone involved in industry is suffering very heavily indeed
from the recession,'' he says. ''a kind of anti-recession
coalition could build up with the tuc and the cbi, though the
recession makes trade unions terribly weak because they have no
bargaining power.''

the situation has pushed the unions to look favourably upon
another institution it has traditionally been hostile to -- the
european community (ec). (more/ips)

britain: trade union congress opens under ominous clouds(2-e)

britain: trade (2)

a survey by the british 'guardian' newspaper of 38 of the tuc's
largest unions, trade union leaders said europe is a priority
issue and unions should have closer contacts with ec institutions --
a far cry from the days in the 1970s and early 1980s when unions
were hostile to the concept of a european community.

''they used not to bother about european union, to the great
disappointment of the union movements in some of the other
countries who saw the benefits to labour,'' says crouch. ''but
british trade unions have realised that there is a chance for
social protection in european unity.''

over the past ten years, the unions have been working to develop
contacts in the ec, and the 'guardian' newspaper predicts that
pressure from its members will soon force the tuc to open an
office in brussels, the ec's nerve centre.

indeed at monday's opening session, tuc secretary general norman
willis urged the ratification of the maastricht treaty on european
union, saying it would provide protection for the workers.

but time is running short for britain's trade unions as their
chances of arresting their decline dwindles with every downward
dip of economic indicators.

and the conservative government's decision to exclude them from
its policy-making processes further emasculates the unions, whose
own patronage by the opposition labour party is slowly being
dismantled.

a 'london times' political cartoonist monday likened the tuc's
delicate condition to the fast vanishing cheshire cat in the
children's fantasy 'alice in wonderland'.

and in an accompanying article, columnist bernard levine writes:
''union movement! what a word to describe the embalmment of the
living dead!'' levine goes on to exult over the demise of union's
power to paralyse industry and impose its ways on management.

crouch disagrees. ''it is a pyrrhic (false) victory that people
like levine are celebrating,'' he says, pointing out that though
the trade union movement is stagnating, it has made gains in
recruiting more white collar workers, women, and other sectors
that were not their traditional strongholds.

membership may be down, he says, but it is down to a level in the
1960s when conditions were much more favourable for trade unions --
an indication that ''though things are bad, they are not doing too
badly''.

''in the end,'' says crouch, ''the unions will be broken only so
long as the economy is broken.'' (end/ips/np/cg/cpg/92)