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THERE CAN BE LITTLE DOUBT that the US labour movement is in the midst of its most profound crisis in a century. Private sector unionization rates have dipped below 10 per cent, to levels not seen since the early 1900s. Once-strong unions such as the United Automobile Workers have been forced by employers into a never-ending string of concessions. And in 2005, US labour witnessed a serious rupture, as several of the largest US unions, led by the Service Employees and the Teamsters, disaffiliated from the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations [AFL-CIO] to form a new federation called Change to Win [CTW]. Critical of the AFL-CIO for failing to persuade many of its unions to devote more resources to recruiting new members, the CTW promised to wage more vigorous organizing campaigns. Whether the CTW can revive US labour’s fortunes remains to be seen. But one year after the birth of the new federation, there has been no appreciable turnaround in labour’s situation. And no great breakthroughs seem to be in the offing. At this point it may be fruitful to step back from the debates that swirled around the labour schism in order to ask some questions about the nature of labour’s current problems, the strategies that have been advanced by the rival federations to deal with those problems, and the way labour is framing its vision for its members and other workers.
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