NEW YORK (AP) — The United Auto Workers said its
membership grew by nearly 9,000 people last year, the union said in a
filing with Department of Labor, the fourth-straight year that the union
has rebuilt its depleted ranks.
UAW’s due-paying membership now
stands at 391,415, compared to 382,513 in 2012. The UAW’s hit a low of
355,191 in 2009, the year when both General Motors and Chrysler filed
for bankruptcy.
The Detroit Three may have mostly recovered from
the industry’s nadir five years ago, but the UAW still faces many
challenges. The UAW had roughly 1.5 million members in 1979 at its peak.
Annual
dues collected by the UAW, the union’s main source of income, have
fallen more than 40 percent from 2006 to 2013. However, the drop appears
to have stabilized this year, as total dues in 2013 were $115.1
million, up slightly from $115 million in 2012.
The union also
failed in February to rally enough worker support to organize
Volkswagen’s factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., even with the passive
support of VW management. The VW plant was considered a major test for
the union to push its membership into the South, where several domestic
and foreign automakers have been opening up factories.
To bolster
its ranks, the UAW has been increasingly pushing to organize workers in
non-automotive industries. The UAW said it organized casinos in Ohio and
Las Vegas and was able to organize the graduate student employees of
New York University.
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