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Critics of unions respond that the workers themselves are partly responsible for high unemployment. Reasons: in years past they have resisted automation, refused to move to new jobs in different cities and demanded fat pay hikes that put European companies at a disadvantage against U.S. and Japanese competitors. While not accepting the responsibility for joblessness, many labor leaders recognize that their unions must adapt to the new realities of international competition. Says Giorgio Benvenuto, head of the Italian Union of Labor: "If the old unions fail to modernize their antiquated policies, they will be out of the mainstream."
But that message has not yet filtered down to enough factory floors. Observes Robert d'Hondt, secretary-general of Belgium's Confederation of Christian Trade Unions: "The difficulty for us as leaders is to make our members understand that times have changed and that unions must change too." In December several French union officials reached a precedent-setting accord with the national employers' association that would have allowed companies greater flexibility in such matters as layoffs and working hours. No sooner had the agreement been signed than union militants at the local level forced their leaders to renege on it.
Despite such setbacks, many union officials are optimistic about the future of organized labor. Typical of that attitude is Wim Kok, leader of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation. Says he: "I see a growing realism in the European trade union movement, a growing tendency to be basically positive about the introduction of new technologies as the only way to compete with the U.S. and Japan."
Western Europe's unions are, of course, a long way from extinction. The spirit of solidarity still burns brightly in the hearts and imaginations of many Europeans, decades after unions first began to stand up for the working man and woman. But labor's problems--chronic unemployment, dwindling membership, the shifting nature of work, waning public support--are immense. If the failure of the British coal miners' strike holds a lesson for European labor, it may be this: the future of unionized workers is inextricably bound up with the health of the companies and industries in which they work. Unions, like companies and industries, cannot survive unless they learn how to change.