One fast-growing grassroots organisation is Working America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO which links union members and non-union workers to campaign for better jobs, higher standards in education and, above all, health-care reform. (Any progress on this front under the Obama administration will be claimed as a success by both AFL-CIO and the breakaway coalition led by Mr Stern.) Moreover, grassroots union activism in several swing states helped Mr Obama to victory.

ECONOMIST: Unions