The dispute between General Motors and the United Auto Workers may have reached its end yesterday as the two parties agreed on a tentative deal, it may not be a labor victory for the UAW with its contents. The UAW had been historically known as one of the most dominant force in the industrial sector of the U.S.

"For a long time, the UAW was the face of the labor movement but it's not where the power is in organized labor any more," says Julius Getman, labor law professor at the University of Texas School of Law, and author of "Strike."

The UAW is the 12th ranking U.S union with its 538,448 members. The largest union is the National Education Association with 2,767,696 members and the second is the Service Employees International Union with membership numbering to 1,575,485 according to the BNA, a specialized news and information publisher.

Because of the tightening of legal controls in the union organization as an effect of globalization, the membership in labor unions have declined for the past years. Dating back in 1977, 24 percent of workers are members of the labor union and last year, the number declined to only 12 percent. But calls for union organization have also intensified for the past years. Such acts helped revitalize some unions which are willing to come out from their local industrial shells.

The new voices of the labor movement, "are talking about organizing Wal-Mart and reinventing the Civil Rights movement, bringing power in the workplace to workers who are on the margin of society" as explained Gary Chaison, professor of Industry relations at Clark University, Graduate School of Management.

"If I said to UAW president Ron Gettelfinger, 'you should go organize Wal-Mart,' he'd look at me like I was crazy," he adds.

"The UAW used to be one of the most innovative, militant unions, now it finds itself moving backwards."