As UAW fades, so does a path to U.S. prosperity

[WhiskeyGirl]

DETROIT, May 31 (Reuters) - For decades, unionized manufacturing jobs have been considered the surest path to middle-class prosperity and realizing the vaunted American dream for blue-collar workers.

The United Auto Workers helped make that dream a reality.

"We created the middle class in America," said Olen Ham, one of the few surviving members of the 1937 "sit-down" strike in Flint, Michigan, which won the first union contract with General Motors Corp.

Later contracts brought paid holidays, pension benefits and health insurance, enabling blue-collar workers to buy cars and homes and to send their children to college.

Starting with Henry Ford's introduction of the $5 workday in 1914, Detroit's autoworkers have been the industry's most faithful car buyers.

"Over their working careers you'd see GM workers buy 10 or 12 GM cars," said retired auto worker and union activist Gregg Shotwell. "Low-paid workers can't afford new cars, so GM is cannibalizing its own sales."

Others worry that cutting pay for auto workers will have a more widespread effect on the U.S. economy.

"Unions didn't just give us a better life, they gave us better purchasing power," Shaiken said. "They didn't just earn more, they purchased more as a result."

"We may be killing the goose that laid the golden egg," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8534189

Are all the UAW jobs being exported to workers who can afford to buy the products they are building?

Does this just benefit large global companies like FIAT?

Where is the upside for America?  UAW workers?  Taxpayers.  I don't see anything that looks like 'upside'...