This is probably as bad as it gets for a union leader. He's in a fight with no allies.

Quite bluntly, to an auto worker at General Motors or an airline worker facing demands for concessions, this doesn't mean a hell of a lot, ... Their concern is 'can my union deliver at the bargaining table?' I can't think of any union that would really be hurt at the bargaining table.

In organizing itself I see a tremendous increase in the reinventing of the labor movement as the heir of the civil rights movement. I think it's the recasting of the labor movement in a way that I haven't seen in many years.

They're doing it to appeal to the younger workers.

They are trying to do an end-run around the union and go directly to the membership, ... They believe that what they're doing is acceptable to the membership, but not to the leadership.

This is a small union, and it doesn't have any allies, because it's kind of a pariah in the labor movement,