DETROIT– The United Auto Workers union faces the latest test of its ambitious plan to unionize auto plants in the historically non-union South when a vote ends Friday at two Mercedes-Benz plants near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The vote at the two Mercedes plants – one for assembly and the other for batteries – comes a month after the UAW won a decisive victory at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, attracted by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits. The factory has around 4,300 production workers.
The UAW has had little success before recruiting at non-union auto plants in the South, where workers have been far less attracted to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other Midwestern industrial states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would represent a huge boon for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the temptations that Southern states have granted to foreign automakers, including tax incentives, lower labor costs and a non-union workforce. .
Some Southern governors have warned that voting in favor of union membership could, over time, cost workers their jobs due to the higher costs that auto companies would have to bear.
However, the UAW operates from a stronger position than in the past. In addition to the victory in Chattanooga, it won generous new contracts last fall after attacking Detroit’s Big Three automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Workers won 33% pay increases on contracts that will expire in 2028.
GM’s top production workers, who now earn about $36 an hour, will earn nearly $43 an hour by the end of the contract, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes raised the pay of key production workers to $34 an hour, a move some workers say was aimed at alienating the UAW.
Shortly after workers ratified the Detroit contract, UAW President Shawn Fain announced an initiative to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion factories, most run by foreign automakers with factories in Southern states. Furthermore, Tesla’s factories in the US, which are not unionized, are in the UAW’s sights.
About 5,200 Mercedes factory workers can vote for the UAW, the union’s first election in that country. The vote is being conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
The union may have a tougher time in Alabama than in Tennessee, where the UAW had narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with the factory workers. The UAW accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to try to intimidate workers.
In a statement released on Thursday, Mercedes denied interfering or retaliating against workers seeking union representation. The company said it expects all workers to have the opportunity to vote secretly “as well as have access to the information necessary to make an informed choice” about unionization.
If the union wins, it would be a huge boost for the UAW as it seeks to organize more factories, said Marick Masters, a professor emeritus at Wayne State University’s business school who has long studied the union.
“Other companies should be aware,” Masters said, “that the UAW will soon be knocking on their door with more force than in the recent past.”
If Mercedes workers reject the union, Masters expects UAW leadership to explore legal options. This could include arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that Mercedes’ actions made it impossible for union representation to receive a fair election.
Although a loss would be a setback for the UAW, Masters suggested it would not be a fatal blow to its membership effort. The union would have to analyze why it failed to get more than 50% of the vote, given its statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing an election, Masters said. The UAW did not say what percentage or how many workers signed up.
A UAW loss, he said, could lead workers at other non-union plants to wonder why Mercedes employees voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn’t believe an election defeat would slow down the union.
“I would expect them to step up their efforts, try to be more careful and see what went wrong,” he said.
If the UAW can organize non-union factories at Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda with contracts similar to those it won in Detroit, more automakers would have to bear the same labor costs. This could potentially lead automakers to increase vehicle prices.
Some Mercedes workers say the company treated them poorly until the UAW organizing campaign began, then offered pay raises, eliminated a lower pay level for new hires and even replaced the plant’s CEO.
Worker Austin Hall, 20, said Friday he is confident in the union’s chances of victory. “We know we may not have the money for sophisticated lawyers, but we have the power, we have the numbers,” he said.
Other Mercedes workers said they prefer to see how the company treats them without the bureaucracy of a union.
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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
