'Union leaders in California have been engaged in an ongoing strategic planning process to build labor's power in the nation's largest state. This effort is being driven by a leadership committee of the California Labor Federation, which was established in 2004, after unions lost a strategically important ballot initiative by less than 1 percent of the votes cast. What began as a critical analysis of that political setback has since evolved into a systematic effort to identify and overcome weaknesses in the state's labor movement, to develop a common and coherent program for organized labor, to articulate standards and benchmarks to guide power building in California, and to encourage greater unity of purpose among various labor organizations across the state. The experience of California's unions provides an important model that other state labor movements should study and replicate wherever possible."

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