Few U. S. labor unions today influence their core industry as powerfully as the United Auto Workers. Since its inception in 1936, the UAW has set wage rates and work standards across the industry. Today, only the airline unions, and perhaps the professional baseball and football unions, have similar muscle. But now, as autoworkers prepare to install a new leader, the UAW faces the very real danger that it could lose its clout at the bargaining table, much as the steelworkers and other industrial unions have in recent decades. Globalization, coupled with a decades-long slide in membership at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, has brought the UAW to a crossroads. The union needs new mem- bers to keep its strength. To that end, it can push the Big Three to pressure their largely nonunion parts suppliers to stop resisting unionization. But doing so would likely drive up suppliers' costs, squeezing Detroit and ultimately forcing the auto makers to sign less generous contracts. So union leaders have a choice: Will they continue to push for the well-being of today's Big Three members or will they risk their clout and resources on organizing nonunion factories?
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