Hopes of U.S. union leaders for the movement's survival have been increasingly pinned on adoption of Canada-like labor legislation. Canadian labor legislation is in large part provincially based. This suggests that the states should legislate labor law. Highly improbable pro-union changes in labor law are needed to ensure the survival of unions. Since significant labor law reform is at least 4 years away, unions can use the time to consider carefully how the political strategy adopted by Canadian labor (building a fundamentally different political movement even at the expense of winning a particular election) can be applied in a U.S. political system where third-party genesis is almost automatically aborted. The long building process required to mobilize the strength necessary to pass legislation of institutional benefit to unions will force labor to concentrate, in the immediate future, on using its broader social goals in alliance building. The prescription is single issue politics; survival is the issue. U.S. unions do not need a third party, but they do need a political program like that of the Canadian labor movement. The strategy must consider the changing work force, which will increasingly be made up of Blacks, Hispanics, the disabled, and women. (YLB)