Teams of hands-on educators -- superintendents, teachers, union leaders and school board members -- attended the conference, coming from schools districts across the country to Denver, where they learned about terrific examples of labor-management partnerships that are producing great results for students.
"It's a perfect example of labor pointing a problem to management, management coming up with a solution".
One example of labor's more independent approach came two weeks before Mr. Obama's jobs speech before a joint session of Congress.
As an example of labor's new realism, of its bowing to competitive realities, the unions negotiating with G.M., Ford, Chrysler, Goodyear and Verizon all agreed to some form of wage freeze.
Unions are widely considered the most powerful interest group in Albany, and those who have pushed for more fiscal restraint say Mr. Schwartz's involvement is the latest example of labor's inappropriate influence.
One leading example of labor's customizing its message was what happened in early October when union leaders in the hunting-popular Midwest concluded that it was crucial to distribute a flier defending Mr. Gore on the gun issue.
The election of Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, to the federation's executive council, was cited as another example of labor's efforts to broaden its base.
Seamus Heaney elaborated on the lessons of Yeats' extended experimental evolution: "What Yeats offers the practicing writer is an example of labor, perseverance.
"This is a good example of labor-management cooperation," said Esta R. Bigler, director of the New York City campus of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
"It's a successful example of labor-management cooperation".
