"It was always, ‘Look for the union label' on a shirt," muses David Colchamirro, a retired union member. "Now you look, and it sure doesn't say ILGWU, or 'Made in America.'"

Colchamirro is a retired Public Employees Federation member. He was in Menands on Monday afternoon, enjoying the Solidarity Labor Day Picnic.

And he wasn't the only one -- the many attendees there were concerned about the future of the American workforce.

Union leaders were lobbying for a change in health care this presidential election season. Advocating a single-payer plan, they also asked people to sign a card that would help streamline the process of starting a union at American workplaces.

"It's too hard to organize," said Doug Bullock of the Solidarity Committee of the Capital District. "Employers have too much ability to curb a union. They do it all the time... It's weighted towards the employer, the entire legal system."