Cesar Chavez is undeniably the most revered union leader of the past four decades. Okay, you might say he hasn't had much competition on that front. As someone who has long written about labor matters, I have often wondered what catapulted Chavez to that exalted perch - the most respected labor leader since the great Walter Reuther..

In his very smart book, Why David Sometimes Wins, Marshall Ganz goes far to explain Chavez's extraordinary rise and success. Ganz, picking up the baton left by Saul Alinsky, has written a primer that explains how underdogs like Chavez can emerge victorious.

Ganz writes about the importance of strategic vision. One reason Chavez rose so high and won the fervent support of millions -- clergy and students, anti-war activists and moderate Democrats - was he projected a simple and pure vision: La Causa. Farm workers, he told all who would listen, were paid miserably and treated even worse. Sin dignidad - without dignity. The public listened -- because his message was pure and clear. He showed justice was on his side. Chavez became to many Hispanics what Martin Luther King became to many African-Americans - their revered, moral leader. It's probably no coincidence that another underdog, Barack Obama, sought to develop a pure, clear message in his presidential campaign and brazenly borrowed Chavez's slogan: Si, se puede. Yes, we can.

Chavez, at least in his early years, assembled a group of innovative strategists, including Ganz, who thought - and fought -- outside the box. Ganz likened Chavez's strategists to the Biblical David who, in an era when Goliath fought with sword and spear, had the unorthodox idea of seeking to smite his foe by slingshot. Ganz details the creative tactics Chavez and the United Farm Workers used, including their famed 300-mile pilgrimage of impoverished farm workers to Sacramento, with one marcher hauling a wooden cross the whole way. They won deep support and loyalty by making their cause a moral one, a fight against exploitation. They attached themselves to Jesus and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

(Not flinching from the truth, Ganz also writes of Chavez's unfortunate, paranoid late years when Chavez cast out many valued aides he viewed as disloyal.)

Ganz's book has some simple, but oh-so-smart lines: "Strategy is how we turn what we have into what we need to get what we want." "One strategizes to turn opportunities into outcomes."

Today's union leaders, indeed today's political leaders, could learn much from Chavez. They need aides who think outside the box. They need aides who will question them, challenge them, push them. Instead, many leaders surround themselves with obsequious aides and advisors, who flatter them, rather than push them, who stroke them, rather than stand up to them. This has too often translated into uninspiring leaders with uninspiring ideas and uninspired strategies.

America's labor movement would be in far better shape if it had more far-sighted, innovative, idealistic leaders like Cesar Chavez.