With them comes the chance to start moving labor law in a better direction.
Over the last two years, the hotel employees' union had considered a merger with the Service Employees International Union, but both unions decided against the move, labor leaders said.
With the Teamsters' move, labor leaders said, Change to Win, a five-million-member coalition of unions that broke away from the A.F.L.-C.I.O., is expected to vote Thursday to endorse Mr. Obama.
The Democratic frontrunner has campaigned hard for union backing – last Tuesday, in a move labor unions applauded, Clinton called for repealing the Obama-created, Obama-backed "Cadillac tax", which is expected to hit many labor union health insurance plans that have generous benefits.
Such reorganization may involve creating new jobs and hierarchies, as well as training, and moving labor across ranks and tasks.
Moving labor from low productivity uses to zero productivity unemployment does not increase output.
Or maybe the real "to do" is to not penalize small businesses for not having the wherewithal to hire a phalanx of lawyers and tax accountants and lobbyists, enabling them to create subsidiaries or holding companies, to move labor or capital offshore, and to avoid taxes -- all legally.
As China seeks to establish normal trading relations with the United States to and enter the World Trade Organization, she contends, China will intensify its efforts to move labor-intensive production from Guangdong to the less-developed northern regions.
Mills was particularly impressed with Walter Reuther, who had just been elected president of the United Auto Workers, and other progressive union leaders whom he hoped would move the labor movement leftward.
And so, the Gore campaign moves toward Labor Day with the sense that it is clicking on all cylinders, at least for now.
