As the Det News wrote in Mar 09' ...
"The United Auto Workers union lost more than 33,000 members in 2008, plummeting to a new post-World War II low as Detroit's Big Three continued to dramatically downsize. The union's membership fell 7.3 percent to 431,037 in 2008 -- down  33,873  from 464,910 in 2007, according to a report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor posted on a government Web site today.