UAW Membership Shrinks 10% in 1999

The United Auto Workers said its membership fell nearly 10% last year. In its latest annual financial report, the UAW said it ended 1999 with 762,439 members, down from 846,371 the year before. “The signs are ominous,” said Raymond Hilgert, a labor professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “The old blue-collar economy is slowly fading away.” But the UAW said it signed 42,000 new members in 1999, including 10,000 cafeteria workers in Puerto Rico and 8,300 college teaching assistants. According to the union’s Web site, 407,000 of its active members work for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler.