They came to Pittsburgh, heard a host of speeches, elected new officers and passed a raft of resolutions. But did the AFL-CIO convention really accomplish anything?

William Samuel, the director of government affairs for the AFL-CIO, said resolutions passed by the delegates every four years at the national convention lay down the federation's priorities.

While one huge goal is reaching out to young, potential union members, the delegates also waved signs in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and universal health care, and passed resolutions in favor of growing a "green economy," pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to enhance the minimum safety standards for helicopters and repealing U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba. They also called for high-quality public education.

The delegates also voted to increase diversity in their ranks -- including people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered and people with disabilities. On the first day of the convention, Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers and head of the credentials committee, reported 46 percent of the delegates were women or people of color.

But as nice as that statistic was, there also was a very real sense in the room of the aging of the labor movement. A vast majority of the people in the convention center either had gray hair, thinning hair or a good hairdresser.

Therefore, much of the talk was about reaching out to young people and getting them to join organized labor.

"We need a unionism that makes sense to the next generation -- young women and men who either don't have the money to go to college or are almost penniless by the time they come out," Richard L. Trumka said in his acceptance speech after he was elected president to succeed the retiring John J. Sweeney.

When young people do get a job, he said, they work for low wages as temporary workers, contractors or telecommuters, working without security, health care or pensions.

"These women and men need a strong voice. But when they look at unions, they don't see themselves -- only a grainy, faded picture from another time. That's not the way it has to be.

"The labor movement can't ask the next generation of workers to change how they earn their living to fit our model of trade unionism," he said.

Mr. Trumka said the AFL-CIO was planning to organize a "summit" of young workers to craft an action plan to meet their needs.

Part of the plan to create a younger union movement was the election of Liz Shuler, 39, to the No. 2 post in the federation, as secretary treasurer.

Ms. Shuler worked her way up through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, where she started as a staff organizer and rose to become assistant to the president. In her own speech, Ms. Shuler talked about reaching out to workers under the age of 35.

"It's not that today's young people don't like unions; it's just that they really don't know about us," she said.

She also brought up the report released by the AFL-CIO earlier this month that a third of young people worry about finding full-time work with benefits "and an equal number are still living with their parents."

One of the announcements during the week was that Unite Here, a national labor union that represents 265,000 workers who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, laundry and airport industries rejoined the AFL-CIO.

Unite Here, along with the Service Employees International Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters left the AFL-CIO in 2005 after claiming there was too much emphasis on politics and not enough on organizing. Other unions also are looking at rejoining the AFL-CIO, which represents 11.5 million workers.

The gathering of labor, however, also brought out detractors.

The Associated Builders and Contractors, which represents nonunion construction companies, posted billboards in Pittsburgh this week targeting the AFL-CIO convention and asking President Barack Obama, who spoke to the delegates, to veto the Employee Free Choice Act, saying it would cost workers jobs and that union pension plans were running out of money.

Brett McMahon, vice president of a cement company and a spokesman for the Associated Builders and Contractors, said the unions bring with them work rules that are geared for another time. He said an example is the rule on some sites that only licensed electricians can plug in an extension cord.

"That doesn't work for a 25- or 30-person contractor," he said.

Mr. McMahon noted that only 7.6 percent of the private work force was unionized. He said it was because unions didn't keep up with changes in the rest of the world.

He disagreed with federal rules that call for every project over $25 million to have a labor agreement because he said nonunionized companies would then be forced to pay into union pension plans and their own employees' 401(k) plans. He said the union pension plans were underfunded, which is why they are trying to bring in younger workers.

The unions' argument to the younger workers is that, without a contract, they don't know if their jobs or benefits can disappear overnight.

After a week of talking, a week of listening and a week of voting, one thing is sure: The AFL-CIO has a full plate to empty before the next convention in 2013.