LANSING – A top United Auto Workers official said the union recognizes it will lose some members once its contracts with the Detroit Three automakers expire this year and allows workers to no longer have to belong to the union or pay a non-member agency fee, but he also thinks those losses will be small.
UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell said the union has done well in states that already have right-to-work laws in place.
“I just hope and believe that our members have a lot of faith in us that we do well for them, that they see value in what we do for them,” he said in an interview.
Federal statistics released last week showed that union membership dropped sharply in Michigan for 2014, falling 1.8 percent in the first full year that Michigan had right-to-work in place.
Workers under contracts in effect prior to right-to-work going into effect March 28, 2013, had to remain in their union or pay a non-member agency fee until the contract expired.
Jewell said he is frustrated at how little coverage he says has been given to what right-to-work means for those workers who decline to join the union or pay a non-member fee. Unions still have to represent those workers, which mean they receive all the benefits – such as professionals negotiating their contracts and representation in disputes with management – without having to pay for them.
“Someone’s going to have to explain to me how they think that’s right,” he said. “You never hear that talked about.”
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