The UAW can no longer do what it used to do: set the pattern for wages

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/union-auto-workers_n_864492.html

Detroit Auto Workers Look To See Scales Balanced With Big Three Back In Black

First Posted: 05/20/11 09:49 AM ET Updated: 05/20/11 03:12 PM ET

<snip>"What this all means is that UAW can no longer do what it used to do: set the pattern for wages." said labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, who wrote a biography of Walter Reuther, one of the most influential UAW leaders in the union's history.

"{UAW} President King is as good as this generation has. But something has happened to him that is beyond his control and beyond the control of any union leader," Lichtenstein said. "It used to be that what the UAW did had an impact on the rest of the industry. And now that's not the case." snip

Unless the union is somehow able to recover their concessions, experts anticipate a continued reduction in the rewards of making cars -- a slide now decades in the works. Despite the tough physical labor the job entailed, a union job in auto manufacturing was once one of the best jobs a blue collar worker could get at $28 dollars an hour with excellent retirement benefits.

"The problem is that we now have so many non-union employees {in the auto industry}," King said. "The only way to do true justice to workers is to reorganize the entire industry. So, then, across the industry you can deal with this. Because then you're able to say to the employer: We guarantee that your competition is going to do the same thing." snip

The UAW has not been able to say that for many years. To some extent, the drastic drop in the UAW's power and influence represents a decline in employment in the industry overall -- particularly in the last four years. But experts point to two other critical factors that have chipped away at UAW dominance within the industry: the rise of foreign car manufacturer's non-union plants in the south and the outsourcing of parts manufacturing to non-union companies.

one thing that unions must be more conscious of is growing membership.

There is no such thing as a prosperous low wage country.