OUTSOURCING TO MEXICO AND OTHER COUNTRIES CAUSED THIS PROBLEM.

UAW membership falls below 500,000, lowest level since WWII
March 28, 2008 6:36 PM

WASHINGTON
United Auto Workers union membership has fallen below 500,000 for the first time since World War II, reflecting the massive restructuring undertaken by Detroit's automakers.

The union reports Friday in a filing with the Labor Department that it had 464,910 members at the end of 2007. UAW membership peaked in 1979 at 1.5 million, but has been dropping ever since.

In Ohio, the UAW represents workers at assembly and fabrication plants in Lordstown, transmission plants in Toledo and Defiance, metal centers in Mansfield and Parma near Cleveland, the ACDelco operation in Groveport near Columbus, and a distribution site in West Chester near Cincinnati.

Mike Smith, director of the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, says the last time the UAW had fewer than 500,000 members was in 1941. By 1945 UAW membership had surpassed one million.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC and their suppliers have cut tens of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs in the last few years.

http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/oh/news19.shtml