The head of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, Andrew Little, is reconsidering standing for Parliament.
Often tipped as a future Labour leader, Mr Little earlier in the year ruled out standing. However, he confirmed this week he had been approached again.
"I think it is fair tosay I have been on the receiving end of some comments in the last week or so about whether I would reconsider. That is all I am prepared to say at this point."
President Mike Williams said last night that Mr Little had confirmed he would reconsider standing.
"I think he is a real talent and I'd like to see him in sooner rather than later," Mr Williams. "He is certainly Cabinet material."
It is possible that Mr Little could be nominated for the list only rather than contest an electorate selection.
If he did, the 2008 election could rob the engineers union of both its national secretary and its president, Don Pryde.
Dunedin-based Mr Pryde said this week that he would challenge sitting MP David Benson-Pope for the Dunedin South seat.
The Labour Party conference starts in Takapuna tonight and both Mr Benson-Pope and Mr Pryde are expected to attend.
The conference will open with entertainment from musician Chris Knox, who has written a song that Mr Williams says may be used in next year's election campaign.
The party's sector groups will meet in Takapuna today.
New Cabinet minister Shane Jones confirmed last night that the party's Maori council, Te Kaunihera, would be discussing a raft of remits that emerged from a hui a few months ago at Ratana near Wanganui.
Among them is a remit that would recognise the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document of the country to be enshrined in a written constitution once one is developed.
Mr Jones did not know whether the remit would then be referred to the party's remit committee.
He said there was concern that the Treaty of Waitangi had become ensnared in the minutiae of funding of iwi.
