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The hunger strikers in Northern Ireland and the members of everybody's favorite "independent trade union" in Poland have behind them the obvious power of ideals. They do not face the cruel dilemma which America's labor leaders must now confront.
The air traffic controllers broke the law and as such had been cast as outlaws and traitors. But against that reasoning, they took a courageous stance for freedom. The collective bargaining system has no validity if one side lacks leverage, and striking appears to be the measure of last resort by which employees can exert pressure on their employers.
By closing the door on compromise in the air traffic dispute, Reagan has indicated that workers have no right to move the mountain of management on their own terms. He has forced a Faustian decision upon American labor--cooperate or take your chances. PATCO gambled and lost.
For the past decade, organized labor in this country has steadily lost ground. The number of unionized workers has shrunk to barely a third of the labor force in an economy which has become overwhelmingly service-oriented. Following the tone set by former UAW president Leonard Woodcock and his successor, Douglas Fraser, prevailing wisdom has had it that in times of economic stress labor must cooperate with management wherever possible. This represents a strong departure from American labor's history: for years, the worst accusation that could be directed at union representatives was that they were "company men" or "in bed with management."
Despite the rising productivity of blue collar workers and the declining productivity of managers, as documented by MIT economist Lester Thurow, union members are being asked to bear the brunt of America's economic decline. Though many workers have risen to middle class stature and find the PATCO strike distasteful, the business-labor alliance may not last long at all. Washington's September 19 Solidarity Day is the first symbolic hint of these shifting winds.
In short, Reagan's decision is a ready-made recipe for class conflict. If for several years organized labor has been a cause without a rebel, the current danger lies in the possibilities of it becoming a rebel without a cause.
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In Canada this summer, federally employed postal workers went on strike, delaying mail for more than two months and imperiling several small businesses. The postal employees have a legal right to strike, but Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau came under fire for not dealing with the dispute as "strongly" as Reagan dealt with PATCO.
The frustrating mail strike, the second in five years, seemed to hinge on the relatively minor question of paid maternity leave. The Liberal Party government did not grant the Canadian Union of Postal Workers the amount it sought, and the posties eschewed envelopes for picket signs.
While Conservative Joe Clark, leader of the federal opposition, urged Trudeau to take drastic action to end the postal strike, the prime minister stood by the right to strike even as government negotiators took a hard-line approach at the bargaining table. Trudeau believes in the need to compromise in a federal system, but hsi hands-off attitude toward the postal strike helped cause a significant summer by-election defeat in a traditional Liberal stronghold.
The by-election result (socialist Dan Heap edged Trudeau's former chief adviser, Jim Coutts) showed a public impatient with the economy and intolerant of strikers. When Reagan fired PATCO members, his decision was widely applauded.
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What remains for workers besides the right to strike? Arbitration for public employees might help minimize conflict and improve the workers' lot. Unions must vigorously organize workers and attempt to forge the solidarity needed to counterbalance the pervasive threats to organized labor.
Polish unionists, Catholic hunger strikers, baseball players, air traffic controllers, and postal workers have at least this much in common: without the right to strike, they have few ways to control their own destiny. Any attempt to wrest away that influence should be greeted by a concerted response. And the next time we are inconvenienced or deprived by a strike, we should remember that such actions speak for all those who are having the life squeezed out of them.