The Failure of Organizing, the New Unity Partnership, and the Future of the Labor Movement

Organizing has been at the heart of union strategy discussions for twenty years; it became labor’s top priority with the election of John Sweeney as president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in 1995. However, recent data on membership confirm that union fortunes continue to decline. In response to the deepening crisis, five major unions formed the New Unity Partnership (NUP) in 2003. These unions argue that there is a fundamental weakness in the movement’s structure that must be addressed. They call for consolidation through mergers, and for open debate on the role for the AFL-CIO. There is open resistance to the restructuring proposals, and there are practical barriers to implementation. The NUP unions themselves have not been able to achieve increased density on a national scale. In spite of skepticism and resistance, the dramatic nature of the NUP framework at least broaches the notion that organizational transformation is required.