Invariably these days, Labor Day is occasion for progressive intellectuals all over the country to show up on community radio talk shows, academic symposia, and newspaper op-ed pages to ponder the question: Whither labor?

With union density what it is (13% overall, less in the private sector), it’s a discussion worth having, and having often.  Happily however, here in California, we have as muscular a labor movement as ever (or maybe not ever, but in living memory).  If I could post pictures here, I would put up a nice one from this morning’s L.A. Labor Fed breakfast at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, where just about every Southern California Democratic officeholder above dog catcher showed up to honor the organizations that fight for what we now apparently refer to as the “middle class,” and that we once knew better as the working class.  With that kind of political juice, breakfasters were safe to table the discussion of Labor’s Future in favor of that of what unions need to get done between now and November to get a new governor in Sacramento.

The big news of the night: the California Teachers Association has worked out an agreement allowing it to affiliate with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

That may sound less than earth-shattering to those who have other interests than the political machinations of union bureaucrats, but it is actually quite significant.  The 335,000-member CTA is an unaffiliated union, meaning that it does not belong to the California Federation of Labor, the state’s governing body of the AFL-CIO, and by extension, nor to the L.A. Fed, the county’s AFL-CIO governing body.  Yet the teachers union is, arguably, the single most powerful campaigning and lobbying organization in the state.  And the L.A. County Labor Fed is not just another Central Labor Council — it is a legendarily capable labor council.  It has helped launch the careers of many California political stars, including Antonio Villaraigosa.  Fabian Nunez was the L.A. Fed’s political director before winning his seat in Sacramento.  The combination of these two formidable outfits is promising indeed.

So, some good news for Labor Day in California, an occasion usually devoted in progressive circles only to nostalgia and hand-wringing.