United Automobile Workers of North Carolina

Panel Introduction

It is no coincidence that union membership declined as deindustrialization progressed. Steel and automobile manufacturing unions were significant parts of organized labor in the United States, and as those heavy industries moved overseas, union workers became unemployed. Additionally, the threat of off-shoring helped to discourage unionization in remaining factories; some corporations have stated this explicitly. While a less labor friendly federal government certainly played a role in reducing the size and influence of unions, economic factors such as deindustrialization certainly played a major role. The labor movement is recovering in part by appealing to workers in traditionally unorganized industries, such as service work.

While domestic heavy industry unions have declined in membership, they are not extinct. Ford and General Motors still build union made cars in the United States. The successful strike of workers at John Deere and GM plants throughout the country is an example of the power manufacturing unions like the United Auto Workers still wield. However, non-union plants run by companies like Nissan, Toyota, Honda, and Tesla produce well over half of American cars. As such, the United Auto Workers have continuously worked to expand their union to new plants. The struggles of the workers at a Freightliner plant in Mount Holly, North Carolina, are an example of the perseverance of the labor movement in the face of adverse economic conditions.

The union movement is an international movement that seeks to guarantee safe and well-paying jobs for all. Such protections are sorely needed in places with growing manufacturing industries. One particularly visible example of this is the collapse of a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that killed over 1,100 workers and bystanders. It is important for unions in the United States to support the labor movement across the world, as it represents the same struggle.