manufacturers. As sales of imported cars and steel rose, the number of jobs in U.S. auto manufacturing fell.

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14.3 • Market Power on the Supply Side of Labor Markets: Unions 341

This industry is heavily unionized. Not surprisingly, membership in the United Auto Workers, which was

975,000 in 1985, had fallen to roughly 390,000 by 2015. Import competition not only decreases the

employment in sectors where unions were once strong, but also decreases the bargaining power of unions in

those sectors. However, as we have seen, unions that organize public-sector workers, who are not threatened

by import competition, have continued to see growth.

A third possible reason for the decline in the number of union workers is that citizens often call on their

elected representatives to pass laws concerning work conditions, overtime, parental leave, regulation of
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