Why would a worker in TN vote to join the union that failed to protect big 3 workers?

[Historic NY]

52. Detroit was long gone before NAFTA...

it was an overbuilt city that was going to provided for the masses, a transportation product. People flocked to the city for automotive jobs..Detroit cornered the market as parts suppliers and skilled laborers followed the largest manufacturers took up stakes there and was hard for companies in other regions to compete. Companies like Packard, Hudson, American Motors came and built massive plants to keep up with GM, Chrysler & Ford.. The Big Three, got bigger as the competition was swallowed up in the post WW II era when the demand for cars was high. The 60's gave way to big guzzlers and fast cars..Detroit gave the customer what it wanted and more. The 70's downturn and in particiular the gas crunch on 1975, was the death rattle. The demand for economical cars and the CAFE Standards force companies to downsize and pretty much thrown anything out on the market. This open the market for cheap imports from Europe & Asia, mostly Japan. In many case they got sweet heart import schemes. They developed a reputation for reliable transportation while the wheels were falling off in Detroit.

As companies merged & folded in the post war boom....the city that overbuilt became a ghost town in some areas with un-needed housing and manufacturing plants. what was falling down with decay was burned down over the years by vandals. Hard economic times and loss of tax revenue and jobs put Detroit in the death spiral.