Today is going to be a wild, red-hot day in the debate over the future of labor—and there is new movement to report in the forces at play here.

The insurgents (UNITE-HERE, Teamsters, Laborers, SEIU and UFCW) will be releasing a new set of proposals and initiatives today that was hammered out at the recent Teamsters conference in Las Vegas, where four out of the five top dogs of the insurgent unions came together (UFCW’s Joe Hansen participated via phone). I’ll be posting that document and also have some analysis comparing the new document to the proposals put forth by the Sweeney camp. Stay tuned.

Just to get your juices flowing, there have been a lot of rumors in the past two weeks that Ed McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was going to switch over to the insurgent side. I had heard that some of the AFT New Yorkers, among others perhaps, weren’t happy with the AFT’s position siding with Sweeney. With 1.3 million members, a switch by AFT would put Sweeney in deep trouble (remember, the insurgent caucus already has about 40 percent of the votes)—it might trigger one or more defections, or at least dent the Sweeney camp’s rap that his re-election is a done deal. Remember what I’ve been counseling: it’s a long way to the July convention.

But, hold on—my own sources say that McElroy still counts himself as a Sweeney supporter but is actually looking for a “third way”—a candidate who isn’t Sweeney and isn’t someone from the insurgent group. He apparently may be getting a hand in that from the still-annoyed Harold Schaitberger who, as first-reported here at Working Life, resigned in a huff after feeling ignored in his role as head of the Federation Executive Council’s Public Affairs Committee. McElroy just chaired a committee examining the role of state and central labor bodies (a Council resolution based on that committee’s work was passed at the March Executive Council meeting in Vegas) And McElroy might even turn into a candidate himself that could be acceptable to the insurgents if it means Sweeney doesn’t run. But, we’re still a long way from there because, as one insurgent insider says, it depends what McElroy agrees to on the insurgents’ principles.

Over the weekend, I ran down an AFL-CIO insider who describes McElroy this way:

He’s kind of a deal-making kind of guy. He’s open to ideas, he’s a good negotiator, and when he was president of the state federation of teachers in Rhode Island and also the labor council, he wasn’t afraid of taking risks.

That’s not much insight other than showing McElroy might wear well with enough people to make him an attractive alternative. But, this is also speculation.

Lurking in the background, and someone I’d keep my eye on, is AFSCME’s Gerry McEntee. The GMac will not want to be on the losing side and, if he senses any deterioration in Sweeney’s position, he’ll try to be in on the deal, no matter who the candidate is. Remember his loyal performance during the presidential campaign, when he first supported Kerry, dumped the Massachusetts stiff for war hero Wes Clark, threw Clark overboard when Howard Dean got hot (literally begging Andy Stern to do a joint endorsement so GMac could get some of the limelight) and, then, cut Dean’s political throat, calling him “crazy” (or was it “nuts”) when Dean cratered after the Iowa caucuses. If I was in a foxhole with GMac, forget watching my back, I’d shoot him first.