Because the reversal of the strike pay increase came late on the last day of the four-day convention, numerous delegates had already left. Some took to social media to express their frustration with the late reversal.

The drama, shortly before the convention adjourned, hours later than expected, appeared to highlight the extreme divisions at work in the union, with delegates who supported the change less than a day earlier seeing what they thought was a win disappear.

Daniel Vicente, a delegate from Pennsylvania, made his frustration clear after the convention adjourned. He called it outrageous that a vote on strike pay would be reversed one day after it was taken. “I have no respect for anyone who sits on the International Executive Board after today. I’m disgusted with the whole thing,” Vicente said, noting that he loves being in the UAW, but he believes the union is sick and that that needs to be addressed.

The number of union members fell by 170,000 in 2019—a year when U.S. employers added more than 2.1 million jobs—reducing the share of the workforce in labor unions to 10.3 percent, the lowest portion on record since 1983, the Labor Department said last week.

Union membership in manufacturing fell to 8.6 percent in 2019, a record low. Many manufacturers that expanded in the U.S. opened plants in southern states, where unions are rare, or otherwise sought to avoid organized labor as part of a strategy to be competitive with other parts of the world.

Overall union membership rates have trended at record lows for a decade.
The decline reflects both the fading power of organized labor in the U.S. and slower employment growth in traditionally more unionized industries, such as manufacturing, transportation and utilities, compared to health care and other services.

Economists point to the decline as a reason why wage growth has been relatively soft in recent years despite low unemployment and steady hiring. Median weekly pay for full-time union members was $1,095 last year versus $892 for nonmembers, the Labor Department said.

In 2019, there were 14.6 million union members and 141.7 million total U.S. workers.

Source: Wall Street Journal