UAW Membership Drops to Lowest Level Since World War II

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The last three decades have not been kind to the United Auto Workers union (UAW) (Detroit, Michigan). After reaching its peak membership of 1.5 million in 1979, the union has been in decline ever since. At first this decline was gradual, but in recent years the membership numbers have been dropping rapidly. As of the end of 2007, total membership within the union ranks had dropped to just more than 464,000, the lowest levels since 1941.

While the UAW services several industries, the automotive industry is traditionally what one thinks of when the name UAW is mentioned. North America's automotive industry is in the midst of a great deal of flux, which has just compounded the problems within the UAW. The Detroit Three are all in the process of major restructuring and reorganization that have involved multiple early retirement and buyout offers, as well as plant closings within the last five years. Couple this with the rising number of automotive suppliers, many of whom are staffed by the UAW, who have been forced into bankruptcy or closure and you have additional problems for the union.

One of the most recent companies to present a problem for the union is American Axle & Manufacturing Incorporated (NYSE: AXL) (Detroit). The union walked out onto the picket lines at five American Axle plants over five weeks ago, and there are no signs that the strike will end anytime soon, especially since American Axle is threatening to take its production offshore and close the five plants in question.

In addition, the union has found itself not attracting the younger members that it once had. In the 1970s in the Great Lakes region you could talk to just about any union worker and they would tell you how just about every adult in their family was a member of the UAW and worked within the automotive industry, especially in Michigan. Today, the younger generations have been attracted to other job opportunities, especially since the advent of the Internet and the multitude of tech jobs that Internet-related companies provide.

At one time the union was the major force within the automotive industry in the United States. It was inevitable that there would be a shift in power within the industry at some point, but with the automakers experiencing the problems that they are, the shift has been very dramatic and very fast. As foreign automakers have taken control of the market in the U.S., in part by locating their facilities in states where the union does not have control, the decline of the union has only occurred more rapidly. Things should balance out once again within the automotive industry at some point in the next few years, once the American automakers manage to restructure themselves enough to become profitable once again, however, as this transition takes place, the union will continue to suffer.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.