UAW membership increased in 2001

DETROIT, April 3 Reuters reported that membership in the United Auto Workers union increased about 4.3 percent last year, giving one of the largest U.S. labor unions a rank-and-file gain for the first time in more than two decades.

In an annual financial statement filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, the UAW said its membership stood at 701,818 at the end of 2001, an increase of 29,865 from the previous year.

Until last year the UAW's membership, which declined by about 12 percent in 2000, had dropped steadily since 1979, when it boasted 1.5 million members.

The union's downsizing has largely been due to Detroit's Big Three automakers, which have slowly cut their blue-collar work forces due to pressures from foreign competitors.

But the UAW has also had very limited success in unionizing workers at automotive parts suppliers or at Japanese and German automakers, which have opened plants in southern states away from the UAW's traditional Midwest stronghold.

The UAW also represents workers in the aerospace and defense, farm, heavy equipment and other manufacturing industries. And in recent years it has expanded into health care and the service sector.

Non-automotive workers are now believed to account for about 40 percent of the union's membership.