Bozzotto describes Rondeau's style and approach as atypical in terms of the traditional labor movement.

First, the contract negotiations began with "transition teams" which did not negotiate specific issues, but worked to remove any animosity that might remain from the long organizing campaign.

Second, HUCTW's negotiations have been broken into eight small negotiating tables, each responsible for a narrow topic such as pensions or salary structure.

"Kris has broken down these committees and motivated people to have two attention spans," one to their narrow topic and another to the negotiations as a whole, Bozzotto says. "Without a doubt it's working because if it weren't they'd be at each other's throats."

Some labor experts attribute the labor movement's resurging momentum to the increased number of women in unions--they are, according to experts, initiating new formulas to old problems. And because Rondeau and her 83 percent female union have taken an active stand in molding new forms of collective bargaining, other parts of the labor movement--including the traditional, mostly male unions at Harvard--will be forced to respond.

"Women are more involved because they've see how successful Kris has been. That definitely wouldn't have happened if a man had been running that local," Bozzotto says.