US union says membership up slightly in 2012 as industry recovers

DETROIT—The United Auto Workers union says its membership rose slightly last year as the U.S. manufacturing sector continued its recovery.

The UAW said it had 382,513 members in 2012. That was an increase of nearly 1,800 workers—or less than one per cent—from the previous year.

The union said it gained members at auto parts plants in Alabama and Kentucky and a bus factory in Oklahoma.

More than 1,000 workers at a casino in Cleveland also joined the union last year.

UAW membership is up nearly eight per cent from 2009, in the midst of the recession.

But it is still far below its peak of 1.5 million in 1979.