The changes facing American labor reflect the dynamics already reshaping our nation's economy and politics. The unions are surviving by keeping their options open.

The first Labor Day of the new millennium finds the American workers' movement in a state of flux. Union membership has dropped to its lowest mark in 60 years, factories are closing or moving overseas and changes in global trade and finance have realigned the movement's political base. Still, a new poll shows Americans side with unions 2-1 in labor disputes, reflecting uncertainty over the new economy and the public's strong regard for workplace safety and fair employment laws.

Despite losing a costly campaign to elect Al Gore, organized labor has scored some successes by tapping into American uneasiness over the very global architecture Clinton and Gore helped to create. Although labor unions remain one of the Democratic Party's core constituencies, labor leaders are showing a willingness to work with Republicans and even big business to advance their short-term goals. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is supporting a Bush administration plan to drill for oil and gas in Alaska. At the same time, labor is pressing congressional Democrats to oppose free-trade agreements and deny Bush "fast-track" authority in trade negotiations.

Labor unions have been gaining political clout even as their membership declines. Only 13.5 percent of American workers were union members in 2000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure falls to 9 percent in the private-sector. Labor has countered the drop in heavily unionized industries by reaching out to health care workers, university professors and other book-trained occupations that lend themselves to collective action. It has strengthened its ties to student and environmental groups. And organized labor has used several high-profile disputes -- those involving the airlines, for instance -- to foster a kinship with the public against corporate indifference.

The changes facing American labor reflect the dynamics already reshaping our economy, communities and political institutions. Job mobility, leaps in technology, globalism and the increasing popularity of independent party activism have forced the unions to expand their appeal to remain a relevant social voice. Their first agenda remains jobs and wages. But by broadening their front and partnering, when necessary, with business, Republicans and consumer and environmental groups, the unions recast their image as class warriors; they survive by operating within the political mainstream and by keeping their options open.

Jobs, the minimum wage, family leave, the right to collect and spend union dues -- these will remain the bread-and-butter issues for the modern labor movement. Unions also appear to be positioning themselves to play an even larger role in electing Democrats to office. The real transition, though, will come not as unions capture these insecure workers, but when these disaffected union members begin to rely on organized labor to make the new economy work. Delivering on that challenge ahead won't be a picnic.

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