But just because the UAW is losing members doesn't mean American auto workers are losing jobs. According to government data, more Americans are making cars today than were making them 25 years ago. Instead of working for the Big Three, though, lots are now working for Toyota, Honda, and other foreign-based automakers building cars here in the United States.
Strictly speaking, not even Chrysler is one of the Big Three any more because it's now Daimler-Chrysler with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. If present trends continue, Toyota will soon be employing more Americans than Daimler-Chrysler.
The problem is not jobs. It's wages and benefits. The real median wages and benefits of American auto workers have been dropping for several years. A quarter century ago, America's auto workers were at the top of the heap. Technically, they were blue-collar, but their wages and benefits put them near the top of the middle class. Lately they've been descending into the lower middle class.
This is partly because Americans who work for foreign-based automakers are not unionized and don't earn UAW type wages and benefits. And it's partly because even the UAW has been forced to accept cuts. The President of the UAW warns of more wage and benefit give-backs to come.
Who's to blame for all of this? GM, Ford, and Daimler-Chrysler should have stuck to their knitting. They should have offered fewer and better cars and not relied so much on SUVs and light trucks. They shouldn't have tried so many gimmicks to move cars out of dealer showrooms, like zero-interest financing.
But the real blame for the decline in the fortunes of American auto workers falls on you and me. We've wanted the best deals. We've demanded inexpensive cars that run well. We have not been willing to spend our money paying for the old level of UAW wages and benefits. That's why some 40 percent of us are buying Toyotas, Hondas, Mini-Coopers, and the like.
In short, competition for our dollars has trimmed GM's and Ford's sales. This is forcing the UAW to trim its sails -- and to accept cuts in health benefits and wages.
Who wins? We consumers. According to consumer price index, new cars and light trucks today cost less in real dollars than they did in 1982, despite all the extras like anti-lock brakes, air bags, CD players and other features that used to be considered luxury options or were unavailable. And they're more reliable.
You and I have benefited enormously from the new competition. Members of the UAW have taken it on the chin.
Robert B. Reich is co-founder of The American Prospect. A version of this column originally appeared on Marketplace.
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