The United Auto Workers added members for a second straight year in 2011 despite its failure to organize U.S. auto plants operated by foreign automakers, a goal that remains at the heart of the UAW's long-term survival strategy. UAW membership increased by 4,107, or 1 percent, to 380,719 last year as Detroit's three automakers added jobs amid a 10 percent increase in U.S. auto sales, the UAW's annual financial filing with the U.S. Labor Department shows.
Still, membership is just a quarter of the union's peak size in 1979, when it boasted n early 1.5 million members. In the more than three decades since, the decline in the UAW's membership has taken a toll on its finances.
With assets of more than $1 billion, the UAW is still America's richest union but the bulk of its wealth is tied up in its strike fund and cannot be tapped at will. As a result, the UAW was forced to sell stocks, bonds and other assets to pay for its day-to-day operations during the most recent U.S. economic downturn as the number of dues-paying meUAW mbers fell.
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