The realities facing American workers – from unemployment and stagnant wages to the lack of family-supporting jobs – are driving the nation’s unions to seek new, deeper relationships with community groups and other allies.

“These times require a broad, progressive coalition to turn this country around,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told delegates to the national AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles.

Union density is at historic lows. 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.

Collaboration, Weingarten said, is the solution. “Union and community together – that is our new density,” she said.

Weingarten co-chaired a committee tasked with charting a path for building labor-community partnerships. While the group’s recommendations, which were adopted at the convention, are not groundbreaking, they do represent a fundamental change in the labor movement’s approach to working in coalition with other groups.

Specifically, the AFL-CIO and its affiliates will “share power and build power together” with community, faith, environmental and other organizations. They will “engage in a process of shared analysis with community partners and build programs” based on that analysis.

“We pledge to be innovative, energetic and committed long-term partners with community,” the AFL-CIO resolution declares.

Both AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and incoming Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre describe the change as going from a “transactional” relationship with allies to a “transformational” relationship, and they talk about an equal partnership, not one dominated by organized labor.

“Our goal right now is to try to go to our progressive allies: ‘Here’s a problem, it’s a joint problem. Let’s both create a strategy,’” said Trumka. “A lot of people are excited about it. Our friends and allies are excited about it.”

“We’re on the verge of creating a labor movement that speaks for all workers, whether or not you have a [union] card in your pocket,” said Gebre.

Such an approach opens the possibility of conflict, for example, in areas where unions and environmental groups disagree.

“We’re in a crisis right now. None of us are big enough to change that crisis,” said Trumka. “Will we disagree from time to time? Of course we will disagree from time to time.”

Prior to the convention, Laborers International Union President Terence O’Sullivan and Building Trades President Sean McGarvey had expressed concern that outside groups – in particular environmental groups like the Sierra Club – might gain some form of membership and voting power within the federation. But no measures were presented to allow any kind of formal affiliation of community groups with the AFL-CIO.

Dozens of groups allied with the labor movement did attend the convention as guests. They expressed strong support for the new approach outlined in the resolution.

Clergy and religious leaders are not interested in “rent-a-collar” arrangements in which they are occasionally called upon to provide the invocation at union events, said Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Workers Justice.

“Faith and labor share core values. We want long-term, deep and honest connections,” she said.

Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said she is excited about the prospect of a true partnership.

“The war on women in reality is also a war on women’s economic security,” she said. “The future of the women’s movement must lie in collective action, in linking arms with our allies, in working collaboratively with those organizations with which we share a basic outlook for justice and an agenda for public policy.”

Minnesotan Dave Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, served with Bobo and O’Neill on the committee that developed the community partnership resolution.

A former Steelworker, Foster now heads an organization that unites unions and environmental groups to advocate for a cleaner, fairer and more competitive American economy.

“The resolution encourages the labor movement to sit down with its strategic partners and map out a return to influence in the country again,” he said.

“We’re not always going to agree on every aspect of everything. And yet that doesn’t mean we can’t do substantial partnerships together that are fundamental to restoring what all of us want.”

For example, unions and environmental groups are currently working together to campaign for repair of the nation’s natural gas pipelines, creating jobs and protecting land and water resources.

In the long term, Foster said, issues like climate change can only be addressed through joint problem-solving by unions and environmental groups.