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.

At 9 a.m. last Tuesday, 2,000 men marched through the black tarmac streets of Grimethorpe (pop. 5,237), a proud coal-mining town in the north of England. Led by the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band, in blue blazers with shiny brass buttons, the marchers filed past rows of two-story red brick houses…