[Jweb_Guru]

The auto industry was unionized way before the 70s and 80s. UAW was founded in 1935. What on earth are you talking about?

[IndPhysiker]

I believe the GP is referring to the rapid depression in the area when auto companies started moving south to open-shop states (e.g. Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee), not the original unionization.

[Jweb_Guru]

If a sector unionizes, and then forty years later jobs move away, blaming everything on the unionization does not make a whole lot of sense.