By Doug Cunningham

The UAW had no immediate comment on Ford’s announcement Wednesday that a total of 38,000 UAW workers had accepted buyout or early retirement offers this year. The workers will begin leaving Ford in January and all will be gone by September of 2007. Earlier this year at GM and Delphi 47,600 UAW workers also accepted buyout deals to leave their jobs. This is an historic realignment of the U.S. auto industry, brought on largely by a of loss of market share to imports. The UAW is taking a huge hit, losing more than 85,000 members. The union is being devastated by the loss of members combined with the failure to organize the domestic plants of foreign automakers.