Fast food workers across the nation walk off the job to demand a wage of $15 an hour. Domestic workers descend on the state Capitol in California calling for overtime pay and breaks on the job. Car wash workers in New York City go to court to stop their exposure to toxic chemicals.

Union leaders gather this week for the convention of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, against a backdrop of growing activity among low-wage workers. They will grapple with the question of whether to engage with these workers to build a new future, and if so, how. And they will consider ways to build bridges to non-labor organizations.

Delegates from construction, manufacturing, public sector, service, transportation and many other industries meet Sunday through Wednesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Some of the AFL-CIO’s 57 affiliates believe it’s critical for the labor movement to take dramatic action. In 2012 the percentage of U.S. workers who belong to unions dipped to just 11.3% overall and 6.6% among private-sector workers. But others see potential pitfalls.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has signaled that he favors a new approach. In recent years, he has formed partnerships with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and National Domestic Workers Alliance, among others. In 2006, the federation decided to allow worker centers – worker-led groups that are not unions – to affiliate at the state and local level. Sixteen have done so to date.

At this convention, some 1,000 members of groups allied to labor are expected to attend as guests. Delegates will consider a measure that would give progressive organizations, such as the NAACP and environmental groups, a voice within the federation.

That proposal has drawn fire from the president of the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Department, Sean McGarvey, who said Building Trades unions, which make up about 20 percent of AFL-CIO affiliates, have “a major problem” in “affiliating with groups that cost construction jobs.”

In a speech to the Michigan State Building Trades convention last month, McGarvey specifically criticized the fed for letting environmentalists in, due to widespread environmentalist opposition to erection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the Canada-Montana border to a huge oil terminal in Oklahoma.

McGarvey predicts the project would create up to 40,000 construction jobs – at a time when more than one of every 11 construction workers is jobless.

Environmentalists and some non-construction unions oppose Keystone XL because it would bring “dirty” Alberta tar sands oil to U.S. refineries and increase the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. The AFL-CIO has taken no formal position on Keystone.

“We want to build the labor movement, but we don't want to do it at the expense of the members that we currently represent,” McGarvey said.  “They have to come first.”            

The push to increase collaboration with groups outside of labor and with non-traditional organizations like worker centers came in part from “talking sessions” held around the country prior to the convention by the AFL-CIO. It’s also come, in large part, from pockets around the country where unions are seeing success with such collaborations.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said that while outsourcing, new technologies and employer opposition are major factors in the decline in membership, unions also bear responsibility.

“Our structure is so closed that it’s difficult for anyone outside the labor movement to believe they have a role with the labor movement,” she said in a speech to the International Labor Communications Association last week.

Durazo said the value of community partnerships became apparent years ago when she enlisted the help of a local worker center during a major hotel strike. The center agreed to reach out to its largely immigrant membership to make sure they would not cross the picketline to work in place of the strikers.

Since then, the Los Angeles labor leader has become a firm believer in the need for community coalitions based on mutual support, even when it’s not easy. She defines the mission of the LA labor movement as “lifting up more than 800,000 low-wage workers who toil in full-time, year-round jobs but still live in poverty.”

To that end, the labor federation has been working closely with community groups on campaigns involving car wash workers, port industry truckers and airport employees. Local unions have launched the Immigrant Organizing Project to lead the fight for comprehensive immigration reform and introduce immigrants to the labor movement.

“The time has come” for unions to engage directly with the community, Durazo stated. “Either you do changes like this, or you’re going to die.”

This article includes information supplied by Press Associates Union News Service.