WASHINGTON — In the early days of the Obama administration, organized labor had grand visions of pushing through a sweeping agenda that would help boost sagging membership and revive union strength.

Now labor faces this reality: Public-employee unions are in a drawn-out fight for survival in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states where Republican lawmakers have curbed collective-bargaining rights.

Also, many union leaders say that the president they worked so hard to elect has not focused enough on job creation and other bold plans to get their members back to work.

"Obama campaigned big, but he's governing small," said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

Labor remains a core Democratic constituency and union leaders will stand with Obama this Labor Day in Detroit, where he will address thousands of rank-and-file members during the city's annual parade Monday.

But at the same time, unions have begun shifting money and resources out of Democratic congressional campaigns and back to the states in a furious effort to reverse or limit Republican measures that could wipe out union rolls.

The AFL-CIO's president, Richard Trumka, says it's part of a new strategy for labor to build an independent voice separate from the Democratic Party.

Union donations to federal candidates at the beginning of this year were down about 40 percent compared with the same period in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Last month, a dozen trade unions said they would boycott next year's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., over frustration about the economy and to protest the event's location in a right-to-work state.

"In the next year, I think all unions can really hope for is to keep more bad things from happening and to get as much of a jobs program enacted as possible," said Ross Eisenbrey, a vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

Unions fell short last month in their recall campaign to wrest control of the Wisconsin Senate from Republicans. That fight was a consequence of Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to eliminate collective-bargaining rights for public-employee unions as a part of a cost-cutting effort. Now the unions are spending millions more in Ohio, where they hope to pass a statewide referendum in November that would repeal a similar measure limiting union rights.

At odds with Obama

It's a far cry from the early optimism unions had after Obama came into office. Back then, unions hoped a Democrat-controlled Congress would pass legislation to make it easier for unions to organize workers. But business groups fought that proposal hard, and it never came to a vote.

Union leaders grew more disappointed when the president's health-care overhaul didn't include a government-run insurance option. Then Obama agreed to extend President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

Obama came out in favor of trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that most unions say will cost American jobs. Despite campaigning in favor of raising the minimum wage, Obama hasn't touched the issue since taking office.

It didn't help that Obama declined union invitations to go to Wisconsin, where thousands of protesters mobilized against the anti-union measure. Candidate Obama had promised to "put on sneakers" and walk a picket line himself when union rights were threatened.

Obama has handed labor smaller victories that didn't have to go through Congress, like granting the nation's 44,000 airport screeners limited collective-bargaining rights for the first time. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and other agencies filled with Obama's appointees have made it easier for unions to organize workers in the airline, railroad and health-care industries.

The NLRB has taken a beating from Republicans after filing a lawsuit that accuses Boeing of opening a new plant in South Carolina in retaliation against union workers in Washington state.

But labor's frustration with Obama reached new heights this summer as Trumka accused him of working with tea-party Republicans on deficit reduction instead of "stepping up to the plate" on jobs. Labor unions and other liberal groups want Obama to push a major stimulus bill with hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and transit systems.

Constrained by budget cuts and a tight debt ceiling, Obama is expected to propose a more limited package.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis defended Obama, saying the administration has established many programs to create jobs, worked to extend unemployment-insurance benefits and helped save the auto industry.

Battling in the states

Unions face a tougher challenge in the states.

Walker wanted to patch Wisconsin's budget shortfall by requiring state workers to pay more for health-care and pension benefits. He said curbing bargaining rights was important to prevent unions from reversing the move in future negotiations.

Conservatives say Walker's measure has done just what it promised, closing budget shortfalls without laying off teachers and other workers.

A measure passed in Tennessee this year ended collective bargaining for teachers unions. In Oklahoma, lawmakers repealed a law that had required large municipalities to collectively bargain with municipal employees.

Union leaders see a more sinister plan not only to cut union benefits, but to crush unions altogether, along with their political largesse to Democrats. The Wisconsin law, for example, bans automatic withdrawal of union dues and requires public unions to hold annual votes to avoid decertification.

In Ohio, unions are more hopeful that they can win a November referendum to undo the state's new collective-bargaining law. A Quinnipiac University poll in July found that 56 percent of Ohio voters say the new law should be repealed, compared with 32 percent who favor keeping it.

"A victory in Ohio would be a tremendous shot against the bow of Republicans to not mess with the unions," said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

It could also help unions show they are still a political force to be reckoned with at both the state and national levels.