Business and Finance

Even with recent expansions at plants in Sterling Heights, Mich., and Detroit, Chrysler has barely a third the number of UAW workers that it employed a decade ago. Total UAW membership, the union revealed, was 376,612 at the end of 2010, down from the 1979 peak of 1.53 million.

“That’s not sustainable,” warned Harley Shaiken, a former UAW member and now a labor professor at the University of California, Berkley.

One of the challenges facing the UAW will be to craft a contract that not only keeps the Detroit makers competitive but which also can help the union meet its next pressing goal: organizing the transplants. So far, only three have approved UAW representations and one, the former GM/Toyota joint venture near San Francisco, has closed.

UAW organizers have come to recognize that shows of strength won’t win the transplants, where workers are typically looking for stable jobs. Instead, the pitch will need to be what King calls “creative problem solving,” and the ability to deliver better pay and benefits than workers can win on their own.

So, what happens in Detroit over the next month-and-a-half could determine not only what goes into the pocket of Big Three union workers but whether they have a viable union to belong t

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