DECATUR - To compete in today's economic climate, unions need to stop looking at their battles as union vs. management or union vs. union and instead look for partners in the effort to restore the reputation of organized labor and rebuild its market share.

That was the message delivered by author and union marketing expert, Mark Breslin, who spoke to more than a thousand union contractors and laborers in the construction trades during a lecture Tuesday at the Decatur Civic Center.

The speech was sponsored by more than 30 Central Illinois businesses and labor groups including several IBEW chapters, several Plumbers & Pipefitters chapters, the Decatur Building & Construction Trades Council, the Decatur Trades & Labor Assembly and the Illinois AFL-CIO.

Breslin said union workers in construction trades need to make big changes to preserve their livelihoods as the union share of the marketplace has shrunk from about 80 percent of the construction work done in America 40 years ago to just about 13 percent today.

He said he hoped unionized construction workers never have to face what striking United Auto Worker employees are going through now at General Motors, but the situation in Detroit provides an example of why it's important for them to be proactive now in dealing with problems in the industry.

Breslin said the UAW and GM have been "in conflict" when they should have been partnering to find ways to ensure the company remained the world's top automaker.

"They should have had that conversation 20 years ago, but the problem is they put it off," he said.

But Breslin also pointed out companies where management and unions worked together as big changes came to their industries, and both profited from the effort.

He said he recently toured a Harley-Davidson plant in Milwaukee where some of the workers on the assembly line were millionaires thanks to their stock ownership in the company, which was thought to be in serious trouble when cheaper Yamahas, Hondas and Kawasaki bikes made their way to U.S. stores.

But the company began extending its brand to more than just motorcycles and now makes about $350 million from clothing sales each year. It is now in good shape financially.

Breslin also urged workers to view themselves and organized labor as its own brand and challenged them to do what they could to change negative images about unions by keeping the promise of better quality.

"People do pay more for brand names," Breslin said.

Mary Tallon can be reached at mtallon@herald-review.com or 421-7984.