Today, the AFL-CIO Executive Council convenes for a special one-day meeting to talk about the election results and the future of the Democratic party. But, what is about to burst into the open is a much more important debate: will organized labor die?
And the answer is a firm yes—unless organized labor takes drastic steps to resuscitate a movement on the edge of irrelevancy.

This is a state of emergency, one that must awaken every progressive in America. The horrific state of organized labor should be far more troubling to our country than the minority status of the Democratic party: Unions represent just 9 percent of the private sector workforce (if you add in the public sector, only 12 percent of Americans belong to unions). That means that 9 out of the 10 Americans who work in private companies are more likely to have declining wages, no health insurance, no real pension and face dangerous conditions every day they go to work.

Without a relevant labor movement, there is no middle class.

Without a labor movement that can organize in the South and Sunbelt, the Wal-Martization of American will continue and Democrats can kiss goodbye any chance of regaining consistent power. We will not have an environmental movement if people are panicked about their daily ability to make a decent living.

Pushing this debate, which has been simmering below the surface, into the open is a set of ten principles made public today by the Service Employees International Union. Called “Unite To Win“.

[2012 update: the United To Win website is no longer active]