O\o7 n several fronts, organized labor in the United States is on the defensive. The percentage of the work force that is unionized has slipped over the years, and just last month the United Auto Workers union was soundly defeated in a widely watched effort to organize employees at the Nissan auto plant in Smyrna, Tenn. Meanwhile, big employers have demanded concessions from union workers: A week ago, communications workers went on strike in response to contract proposals by three regional telephone companies calling for employees to shoulder more of their health-care expenses. Do these developments reflect a decline in labor's influence? Are unions still a vital force in America's economic and political life? Times researcher Melanie Pickett asked various authorities for their opinions, and excerpts of the interviews follow:\f7

Daniel J. B. Mitchell, director of the Institute of Industrial Relations at UCLA:

"What's happened to unions, at least in the private sector, is that they have been marginalized into certain parts of the economy. They remain important in certain parts and in other parts are virtually non-existent. So, in the automobile industry--despite the Nissan vote--you wouldn't want to talk about anything having to do with labor relations or industrial relations without talking about unions, and particularly the United Auto Workers. Even where particular employers are non-union, their behavior is conditioned on what's going on in the union sector.

"The place where (unions) are most important, when we're talking at the federal level, are in coalitions. It's very difficult now for unions to get legislation that is specifically union-sector oriented. The last really big contest along those lines was the so-called labor reform bill in the late 1970s and that was in a much more hospitable environment with a Democrat President and Congress, and yet that couldn't go through. But when you talk about things such as adjustments to the Social Security Act, then labor is very influential because they then build coalitions with other groups that have common interests. Even in absolute numbers, if you have an organization or a group of organizations that represents millions of people and can mobilize funds and mobilize people to knock on doors and ring doorbells and drive people to the polls, they matter in the political setting for that reason."

Bruce Lee, Western regional director of the United Auto Workers: