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UAW Membership Still Declining
Despite inroads in the supplier network, the big union is still slipping.
by Joseph Szczesny (2004-04-19)
Gettelfinger Defends Two-Tier Wages by Joseph Szczesny (3/29/2004)
Done before and done now, the UAW says it's all about preserving jobs.
The United Auto Workers' (UAW) membership has continued to decline, despite the union's recent inroads among big suppliers.
Reports required by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that UAW's membership fell to 624,585 at the end of 2003, down two percent from 638,722 a year earlier. The union now has fewer members than at any time since 1942. The decline has been exacerbated by shift of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to China and Mexico, observers have noted, and steady increases in productivity at home. "If you 20 plants and your productivity grows five percent but your sales remain flat, you need one less plant," noted the chief executive of one Michigan-based supplier company recently.
UAW officials have declined to comment directly to the drop in membership but union's executive board has responded by reducing spending on travel and conferences and by putting some union assets up for sale while continuing efforts to organize both among non-union suppliers and at Japanese and German transplants.
The union, for example, has been quietly collecting cards for a possible vote at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, and also has crossed over into Canada onto the turf of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) to campaign for members at the Honda plant in Alliston, Ontario. Both campaigns are considered long shots and the union has lost in recent organizing campaigns at Nissan plants in Tennessee.
The union successfully last month signed up hundreds of new members at Freightliner plant in the anti-union stronghold of High Point, North Carolina. A key reason for the organizing victory at Freightliner was the union's pact with DaimlerChrysler AG, which allowed the union to bypass the National Labor Relations Board and gain recognition on a card check. Freightliner executives were unhappy with the situation but had no choice except to abide by the pact.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=7048
Despite inroads in the supplier network, the big union is still slipping.
by Joseph Szczesny (2004-04-19)
Gettelfinger Defends Two-Tier Wages by Joseph Szczesny (3/29/2004)
Done before and done now, the UAW says it's all about preserving jobs.
The United Auto Workers' (UAW) membership has continued to decline, despite the union's recent inroads among big suppliers.
Reports required by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that UAW's membership fell to 624,585 at the end of 2003, down two percent from 638,722 a year earlier. The union now has fewer members than at any time since 1942. The decline has been exacerbated by shift of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to China and Mexico, observers have noted, and steady increases in productivity at home. "If you 20 plants and your productivity grows five percent but your sales remain flat, you need one less plant," noted the chief executive of one Michigan-based supplier company recently.
UAW officials have declined to comment directly to the drop in membership but union's executive board has responded by reducing spending on travel and conferences and by putting some union assets up for sale while continuing efforts to organize both among non-union suppliers and at Japanese and German transplants.
The union, for example, has been quietly collecting cards for a possible vote at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, and also has crossed over into Canada onto the turf of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) to campaign for members at the Honda plant in Alliston, Ontario. Both campaigns are considered long shots and the union has lost in recent organizing campaigns at Nissan plants in Tennessee.
The union successfully last month signed up hundreds of new members at Freightliner plant in the anti-union stronghold of High Point, North Carolina. A key reason for the organizing victory at Freightliner was the union's pact with DaimlerChrysler AG, which allowed the union to bypass the National Labor Relations Board and gain recognition on a card check. Freightliner executives were unhappy with the situation but had no choice except to abide by the pact.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=7048
