Reagan and Thatcher broke unions through overt state crackdowns.

Evidence

Fortuitously, from the perspective of the conservative camp, the mass organizations which had brought state and capital to this impasse were already faltering due to the processes of social recomposition registered by Putnam. Politically orchestrated crackdowns further depleted their resources. In 1981, Reagan ended the air traffic controllers’ strike; four years later, Thatcher cracked the spine of the mighty British Miners’ Association. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 140