The union movement has much to celebrate this Labor Day: not just two historic organizing campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon but also the first ever unions at Trader Joe’s, REI, Apple retail stores, and Chipotle. Moreover, the latest Gallup poll shows an incredible 71 percent public approval rate for unions, the highest figure since 1965.

This is even more remarkable given the labor movement’s organizational weakness: unions represent just 10.3 percent of the workforce, and only 6.1 percent of the private-sector workforce. When unions last enjoyed over 70 percent public approval ratings, national union density was more than double what it is today. But considering what it would take to rebuild that level of union density, the situation seems almost hopeless.

There’s a growing disconnect between the energy and enthusiasm, especially among young workers, generated by the inspiring campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon and the long-term trends of declining union membership. Moreover, at the national level, the labor establishment appears (with a few notable exceptions) increasingly out of touch with, and irrelevant to, the unconventional organizing campaigns at places like Starbucks, Amazon, and Trader Joe’s. And while dynamism in the labor movement has rarely come from the national leadership of the AFL-CIO, and is unlikely to do so anytime soon, there’s a much broader problem of timidity and lethargy in established unions throughout the country right now.