UAW membership rose 1.3 percent in 2015. This brings their current membership to 408,639, still drastically lower than the 700,000 members they had in 2002. But it’s not all good news for the Auto Workers right now. Fiat Chrysler announced on April 6 that they will lay off 1,300 workers, represented by the UAW, at their plant in Sterling Heights Michigan on July 5. The number of lost jobs represents 41 percent of the assembly plant’s current workforce. In St. Louis, one UAW leader, Vice President Cindy Estrada, has been effectively banned from her membership’s Facebook page. This decision was made via a vote by the members and is quite representative of their dislike for the woman. These feelings are understandable and can be pinpointed to the “sellout contract” she made last year that affected 55,000 GM workers. 
In other bad news for the union, Ford has officially announced that they will be building a new small car plant in Mexico. The Auto Workers are furious; which is interesting considering Ford leadership made it very clear during the Big Three negotiations last year that if the union didn’t compromise a little on their financial demands, this move would be inevitable.
