The AFL-CIO - the glue that holds the labor movement together - may start to come apart at the seams in 2005.

Or maybe those seams in the labor movement will strengthen with the infusion of fresh ideas and perhaps a new direction.

This year promises to be a watershed for the AFL-CIO. Having spent millions on a failed effort to put John Kerry into the White House, and with U.S. union membership numbers sinking slowly but surely every year, there is a call for change in leadership and direction at the AFL-CIO.

So far, only a trickle of comments have emerged from the 60 unions that make up the AFL-CIO.

But it has been a chorus without a conductor. The voices calling for change are making noise, but no one knows if their words will amount to anything.

All the talk is a warm-up to the meetings of the AFL-CIO Executive Council's meeting in Las Vegas in March and at its convention in Chicago in late July. Historic changes in the structure of the AFL-CIO could take place as a result of those meetings. And thickening the plot lines is that federation President John Sweeney's is up for re-election this year.

The Laborers International Union is one of the first we've seen from the building trades to comment extensively about shaking up the AFL-CIO. The following is excerpted from Press Associates, a union press service.

With union leaders sifting proposals to reorganize the AFL-CIO, the Laborers say its affiliated unions should get half of their federation dues back to help them organize core industries.

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO should concentrate on a few key core functions, such as lobbying and legislation - with immigration reform heading the legislative list.

Like many of the other unions that submitted reform plans, the 354,000-member Laborers call for concentrating and shrinking AFL-CIO staff and functions to those that are essential. They were silent on the explosive issue, pushed by SEIU, of forced union mergers.

The Laborers want AFL-CIO member unions to keep half of the dues they now send to the federation, if, in return, they use that money to organize core industries to increase market share. And they call for innovative organizing techniques, especially in low-wage industries and firms.

And the heavily immigrant union said immigration reform is needed because immigrants are in most need of unions, and the workers are the unions' best hope to increase market share - but they're scared by employers and government.

Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan, one of five union leaders in a "New Unity Partnership" who meet on ways to change the labor movement, noted AFL-CIO restructuring is needed more than ever due to the defeat of labor-backed Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry.

Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, also a New Unity Partnership member, touched off the revamp debate last June when he told his convention the AFL-CIO must reform or be blown up as outmoded.

"With the same urgency with which we fought this election, we must figure out a way to do better," O'Sullivan said. "Starting today, we - and all unions and the Democratic Party - must fight for honest self-examination, and be willing to make radical changes in tactics, strategy, and how we communicate our values."

The Laborers also say that even devoting more than one-third of their budget to organizing - above the 30 percent target the federation set - has not prevented declining market share.

Other highlights of the Laborers' proposals included:

• Organizing should target political battleground states "where we clearly need to unite working families to win national elections."
• Double labor's current political spending and create "a permanent, integrated legislative and political operation that recognizes the bipartisan reality of Congress, and unifies and mobilizes, year-round, the power of union members." It would spend a lot of time lobbying for immigration reform.

"There has been an explosion of immigrant workers in the service and construction trades in the last decade, and employer intimidation and discrimination against these workers runs rampant," the Laborers explained.

"Fear of employer blackmail" of undocumented workers is "the single greatest impediment to union growth, better wages, safer job sites and more security," added the union, which has high numbers of immigrant members.

• Spend more money and brainpower on "joint, affiliate-driven organizing projects to help workers organize corporations that are too big for any one union and which threaten the goals of all workers and all unions."

The Laborers specifically cited Wal-Mart, saying its giant size - now greater as a share of the economy than GM or U.S. Steel were in their heyday - drives down
wages, benefits and living standards not just for its workers and suppliers, but for everyone.

Thanks to Wal-Mart and its kin, the Laborers estimated 80 percent of recently won wage hikes in their contracts now go to rising health care costs, and 20 percent of that is due to "cost-shifting" where covered workers pay for uncovered ones, such as Wal-Mart's. "Leaving the Wal-Marts of our world unorganized leaves all unions with too little influence over wages, health care, retirement and workplace rights," the Laborers said.

• Send more money, accompanied by more accountability, to state federations and local Central Labor Councils. But the Laborers warned that increased numbers alone will not measure success, either for those groups or for local unions. "Standards should not be based merely on membership numbers, which are not necessarily an indicator of union strength, but rather on market share or density, organizing capacity, political capacity and the overall capacity to represent members."
• Consolidate union financial power, by creating one comprehensive financial institution - including ULLICO and other funds - with Union Privilege as its marketing arm. Not incidentally, that would take labor's funds out of the hands of Wall Street, which the Laborers point out uses our money against us.