The UAW is considering raising its membership dues for the first time since 1967.
Its membership tumbling sharply and a long-running effort to organize foreign-owned makers still in limbo, the United Auto Workers Union is looking at the possibility of raising its dues by 25% – for the first time since 1967.
While still considered the richest of America’s unions, the UAW has faced increasing troubled in recent years, with membership declining, organizing efforts stalling and rising costs forcing it to slash expenses. Despite an estimated $1 billion in assets, there have been ongoing concerns about the UAW’s long-term viability, as well as its political clout.
According to a report from the Reuter’s news service, the Detroit-based autoworkers union would like to raise dues by as much as 25%. For the average worker, that would amount to paying the equivalent of 2.5 hours wages per month, up from the current 2 hours. Dues vary depending upon pay grade, however, so if the increase is approved, a veteran line worker at one of the Detroit Big Three would pay about $70.32 a month, while a recently hired employee on a second-tier pay scale would shell out around $39.45.
The proposal is “only in the discussion phase,” Jimmy Settles, the head of the union’s Ford department, told Reuters, adding, “No decision has been made.”
While dues rise with wages, it would be the first formal increase in the formula since 1967, a time when the union was at its peak in an industry overwhelmingly dominated by Detroit. UAW membership actually continued to grow even after Japanese makers like Toyota, Nissan and Honda began to gain ground following the twin oil shocks of the 1970s.
In 1979, the UAW hit its peak with 1.5 million dues paying members. Since then, however, it has taken a nosedive, with only 382,500 members at the end of 2012, a nearly 75% decline. The union ranks have shrunk 30% since just 2005. That’s due to a variety of factors. The UAW has offered repeated concessions to assist Detroit’s Big Three, two of which went through bankruptcy in 2009. The domestic restructuring has seen the closure of scores of assembly and parts plants while new rules meant to promote productivity have further cut into the rank-and-file.
Union membership has been tumbling across the country, with only about one in nine American workers represented by an organized labor group in 2012, according to federal figures. It remains to be seen if the UAW will feel any impact from the move by the state legislature to make Michigan a right-to-work state.
The Autoworkers Union strongly opposed that measure and, in years past, likely would have been able to block its passage, but the move, strongly backed by the GOP controlled legislature and signed by a Republican governor, underscores the steady decline in UAW clout.
Part of the problem has been the rise of conservative Tea Party politics, but a decline in funds available to support political causes has not helped. The union’s total assets fell in 2012 for the sixth consecutive year, according to a filing with the U.S. Labor Department.
The UAW hasn’t completely lost its touch. A historically active proponent of causes ranging from racial equality to universal health care, it was active in both the 2008 and 2012 campaigns that saw Barack Obama reach the White House.
(UAW names Dennis Williams as next president. For more, Click Here.)
But perhaps the biggest failure for the union so far has been its inability to organize the dozens of foreign-owned “transplant” assembly lines that have popped up across the U.S. since Honda opened its plant in Marysville, Ohio, more than 30 years ago.
Several earlier efforts failed but the union appears to have a good shot at gaining representation rights at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., and it is pushing hard to schedule an election at Nissan’s factory in Canton, Miss.
(Click Here to see how the UAW is involved at VW’s Chattanooga, Tenn. plant.)
The UAW has seen a modest, 8% increase in membership this past year, but that has lagged the overall rebound of the American auto industry. The labor group has continued pushing into non-traditional fields, including teaching and even flight attendants, hoping to buoy its ranks, but it remains largely dependent upon the automotive industry for both members and dues.