Mrs. Castle's Recipe

Because a foreman dared to turn on an oil valve, 22 toolsetters from a rival union recently stalked out of Britain's Girling company, a large manufacturer of brakes. That started a disastrous chain reaction. For lack of brakes, automobile companies had to close several plants and lay off thousands of workers. Ford Motor Co., Ltd., alone lost an esti mated $50 million in sales during the four weeks that the walkout lasted.

Such piddling labor disputes badly disrupt Britain's fragile economy and damage its drive to strengthen the pound by raising exports. Last week strikes crippled several key exporters, including a shipbuilder and two automakers, Rootes and Jaguar. Worse still, a squabble over union representation threatened to cripple the country's steel industry. Amid all that acrimony, public debate raged over a new government White Paper on labor policy, fittingly titled "In Place of Strife." Issued by Barbara Castle, the fiery Minister of Employment and Productivity, the paper committed Harold Wilson's Labor Government to press for legislation that would give the government far more power to intervene in the nation's labor relations.

No Alcohol. Mrs. Castle, 57, a lifelong Socialist and welfare-state evangelist, seems well suited to talk tough to trade unionists. The petite wife of Ted Castle, political editor of the Sun, a national daily, she can be a rugged infighter. In her former position as Minister of Transport, she pushed through legislation empowering police to give "Breathalyser" tests to drunken-driving suspects. That enraged British pub owners, who introduced "the bloody Barbara," a drink consisting of tomato juice and tonic--but no alcohol.

In campaigning for the first basic labor reform in 60 years, Mrs. Castle is up against harder foes than pub owners or irate drivers. The problem of overlapping unions--there are 35 in the British auto industry, 16 in steel--leads to endless jurisdictional disputes. It also forces employers to bargain with many competing unions simultaneously and makes industry-wide negotiations almost impossible. Remarkably, unions are not bound by the agreements that they sign, and there are no legal provisions for cooling-off periods or court injunctions to forestall even the most outrageous strikes. As a result, more than 90% of Britain's strikes are called not by union leaders but by disgruntled workers.

Secret Vote. To bring some sense out of this anarchy, the White Paper would empower the government to 1) order a union to hold a secret vote when a major strike is threatened, 2) delay walkouts by ordering a 28-day "conciliation pause" and 3) impose settlements in jurisdictional disputes that union leaders are unable to resolve among themselves. Trade unionists who defy a government order would be subject to fines. On the other hand, the paper turned down the plea of management groups that all labor contracts should be made legally binding.

Mrs. Castle's recipe will probably be enacted by Parliament with little change early next year. Politicians realize that most Britons are heartily tired of industrial strife. A poll by the Sunday Times showed that two-thirds of the country's union members also strongly favor basic labor reforms.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.