Peace at a Price

Truckers settle, but other strikes get worse

Black plastic bags of garbage piled up in minimountains on the sidewalks of London last week. Birmingham's major hospitals sent most of their patients home, reserving treatment only for emergency cases and the critically ill. In Liverpool, authorities were debating whether it would be necessary to bury bodies at sea, since local gravediggers refused to work.

Seeking wage hikes of 40%, thousands of garbage men, hospital workers, gravediggers and schoolteachers were staging wildcat walkouts, even though Britain otherwise was supposed to be enjoying a week of relative labor peace. That erstwhile peace had been purchased at a whopping price. Some 80,000 truck drivers, whose four-week strike had dealt a crippling blow to trade and industry, were voting region by region to return to work. Well they might, since they had won a 21% pay increase for the year, hardly a farthing less than their initial 22.5% demand.

After three years of living with severe pay restraints, British workers are inclined to play follow-the-leader--meaning that the drivers' 21% increase will become the magic figure in future contract negotiations involving other unions. Practically speaking, the drivers' victory was a death blow to Prime Minister James Callaghan's attempt to enforce a 5% ceiling on wage increases this year. Callaghan met with heads of the powerful Trades Union Congress in an effort to patch together a new labor accord, but without any conclusive results. He also summoned leaders of four public service unions to 10 Downing Street, imploring them to show compassion for the public. The uncompromising response from one union official: "We will put the screws on tighter and tighter."

Meanwhile, Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey had grim warnings for Britons about a new inflationary spiral. If wage increases sought by public service employees and other striking workers average 15%, the country could expect double-digit inflation by summer, reaching 13% by year's end (current rate: 9%). The wage hikes could add $6 billion to the cost of public services in Britain, which the Labor government might have to offset by raising taxes and cutting government expenditures by $3 billion. If so, the number of unemployed in the country could rise from about 1.5 million to 2 million.

Confident that she has found a winning issue for elections that could take place this spring, Conservative Leader Margaret Thatcher toughened her stand against the unions. Said she: "If someone is inflicting injury, harm and damage, by God, I'll confront them."

One goal of a Thatcher government would be to limit union power by passing legislation to outlaw closed union shops and rule out secondary picketing in which striking workers can disable factories not directly involved in disputes. Many Britons sympathize; a Gallup poll showed that 84% of citizens felt that national trade unions were too powerful. It was their lowest popularity rating in 40 years of polling.

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