WASHINGTON — Academics who follow the labor movement agree that a shakeup was badly needed.

"If the labor movement doesn't reinvent itself, it will go the way of the horseshoers," said Charles Craver, a labor law professor at George Washington University and author of "Can Unions Survive? The Rejuvenation of the American Labor Movement."

According to Craver, the formation of Change to Win as a splinter federation is the first step and more work is needed in finding better techniques for organizing workers.

Craver pointed out that the Service Employees International Union just barely succeeded in organizing adjunct professors at his university last year because many were reluctant to join a union that also represents janitors.

"It's imperative that unions develop a new model," agreed Cheryl Maranto, an associate professor of management at Marquette University.

The root of the problem is the declining influence of labor unions and their falling membership.

The number of union members dropped by a million between 1999 and 2004 — to 15.5 million. Half of those that remain are concentrated in six states — California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Unions' share of the work-force also has declined, from 20.1 percent in 1983 to 12.5 percent last year. If government workers are excluded, their share of the workforce is even lower — 7.9 percent.

Anna Burger, who chairs Change to Win, said the new group can reverse the membership decline by concentrating on the core industries of its member unions — such as healthcare and property services for SEIU.

For example, SEIU is trying to organize security guards in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where it already represents janitors in the same buildings. And it is targeting two of the nation's largest security firms — San Francisco-based ABM Industries and Florida-based Wackenhut.

Another possible target is FedEx, which is the major competitor of United Parcel Service, where many employees are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The other members of the coalition include: the United Food and Commercial Workers union representing supermarket and food processing employees; Unite Here representing hotel, restaurant and clothing workers; the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners; the United Farm Workers of America; and the Laborers International Union of North America.

Whether the new labor federation is successful may take years to find out, predicted Ken Jacobs, deputy chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California Berkeley.

"It took labor a long time to get this weak and it'll take a long time to get strong again," Jacobs said.