Unions move toward health-care reform deal

Mark McClellan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, praised the "more consensual approach" of some unions in "calling for a solution a broad range of groups can get behind."

The Better Health Care Together coalition, however, has been criticized for providing no specific proposals on reform.

Spokeswoman Amy Weiss said the coalition's proposals were deliberately vague as it was the best way to get the "strange bedfellows" of labor and business to start talking.

Accord on health reform may include labor groups toning down demands U.S. corporations could not accept, said David Cutler, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

"In the past, the unions have been less than completely constructive by insisting on very generous benefits," he said. "There is a growing realization reform won't provide everything the unions want."

If a solution is achieved, however, some observers see an opportunity for the unions to gain members in largely untapped areas like the retail sector to offset the falling membership as the U.S. manufacturing base declines.

"The unions know service sector employees are the future," said Yale's Jacob Hacker.

Roger Hickey, co-director of Washington-based liberal group Campaign for America's Future said unions could use health reform to recruit low-paid workers who have no coverage now.

"If universal health care is introduced unions could say to potential members, 'Hey, look, we won you that,'" he said.