Membership in the United Auto Workers trended down around 9% in 2018, losing around 35,000 members and showing the continuation of a downward trend which began at the turn of the century. With the prevalence of right-to-work laws, especially in auto-heavy Michigan, and the potential loss of General Motors jobs as expected layoffs and plant closures loom, the trend is likely to continue. However, despite fallout from the multi-million dollar financial scandal involving the Fiat-Chrysler training center, the union was able to diversify and add members from gaming and education. The scrappy union is going to have to continue looking beyond manufacturing to ensure a future, as its 2018 loses came despite 264,000 new manufacturing jobs being added to the economy that year. 
