Quick quiz - what state is home to thousands of workers who not only wouldn't join a union - but have never even heard of a union?

(A) Alabama (B) Missouri (C) Michigan (D) Pennsylvania.

International Union of Painters and Allied Trades General President Mike Monroe suggests this answer: All of the above. In a telephone interview last week with The Building Tradesman, he said construction unions and the rest of organized labor have a lot of work to do in Southern states - but organized labor in states like Michigan have a lot of work to do to retain and improve their market share, too.

"It's been my experience that outside of the bigger cities in Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania and other heavily unionized states, we're seeing what has already occurred in the South," he said. "Outside of the cities, sometimes in the next county over, there has been a steady disintegration of market share for unions, and if we don't start to reverse that trend now, we're going to lose everything we've fought for."

In concert with the Painters' International Union's Executive Board, Monroe last year launched the "Southern Initiative," an intensive campaign intended to improve union organizing efforts, and show that the union is concerned with the wage standards, and health and safety of both members and non-members.

"We're basically going back to the original mission of organized labor," Monroe said. "The original labor leaders took on the tough fights, and we're taking on the tough fights. We're going to places where we're not so comfortable. There is a whole generation of workers in some parts of the country who have never known what a union can do for them."

Moreover, Monroe said corporate mergers and worldwide conglomerate companies are completely changing the playing field for organized labor all over the country. In many cases, a construction union that once had a friendly relationship with a contracting company is now dealing with an anti-union corporate parent.

Monroe tapped Michigan-man B.J. Cardwell to lead the IUPAT's Southern Initiative, which will eventually spread to western states, too.

"I chose B.J. because he's very able, and he has impressed me with his initiative," Monroe said. "These efforts aren't easy, and they require proud, stout-hearted union folks like B.J. to show people a better way of living."

Monroe, elected to the IUPAT's General President post in 1998, emphasized the union's commitment to organizing by also taking on the title of "director of organizing."

"Whether you're in Michigan or in the South, unions have to commit to a sustained effort to get their people involved in their unions, and involved in organizing," Monroe said. "So many nonunion workers know one way of life - and that's attached to an employer. They've never heard of a union. If we can go in to an area, and show workers that we're committed to them for the long term, and if we show them some energy and some heart, then they're going to move in our direction."