A majority of workers at Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama facility—the German automaker’s largest U.S. plant—have submitted cards in support of joining the United Auto Workers, setting the stage for a possible union election, amid a broader effort by the UAW to organize workers at major non-union plants—despite mixed results in the past.
This is the Mercedes-Benz logo on a wheel of a GLE 450e 4MATIC SUV automobile on display at the ... [+]
The Mercedes-Benz employees’ key issues include an alleged lack of meaningful raises in recent years and half pay for temporary employees,some of whom allegedly worked for up to eight years without becoming permanent employees, according to employee Jeremy Kimbrell, who announced the latest support numbers in a video Tuesday.
The facility in Vance, Alabama, has more than 6,300 employees with more than 4,400 eligible to join the union.
Tuesday’s announcement comes as Alabama state leaders criticize the union effort and claimed it could make the state’s industrial base less competitive, with Republican Gov. Kay Ivey writing in January the unionization push was driven by “out-of-state special interest groups” and “the Alabama model for economic success is under attack.”
The UAW hit its first milestone at the plant earlier this year when it reached 30% support—the threshold required to hold union elections—as part of a broader effort spearheaded by UAW President Shawn Fain to unionize major non-union automakers across the country, including Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Tesla.
It’s the second plant to reach majority union support this month—a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga became the first non-union plant targeted in UAW’s drive to announce majority support in early February.
Forbes has contacted Mercedes-Benz for comment.
The UAW says whenever a workforce hits 70% support, it will “demand the company recognize our union—or take it to a vote, and win.”
42 cents. That’s how much Kimbrell claimed employees have seen in raises over a six-year period.
Mercedes-Benz told the Detroit Free Press in January that the automaker “has a strong record of success over the past 25+ years operating as one team in Alabama.” The company said at the time Mercedes “has a proven record of competitively compensating team members and providing many additional benefits.” Still, the company added that it plans to respect its employees’ decision.
Alabama commerce secretary told AL.com in January the unionization effort at the plant “places our state’s main economic driver in the crosshairs” and “the days of Alabama being a premier destination for industry investment may be coming to an end” if the union effort is successful.
Following the UAW’s high-profile strikes against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis—the “Big Three” U.S. automakers—Fain announced a new effort to unionize non-union automakers, naming more than a dozen automakers including Tesla, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Mercedes. The strikes last fall yielded wage increases for employees and were part of a series of other labor movements in recent months—including new organizing efforts by pilots, flight attendants and Starbucks employees. However, unionization efforts have historically stalled in auto plants in the South, where resistance to unions has been strong—in 2019, for instance, a unionization effort at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant fell short amid a lack of support from Gov. Bill Lee and an ad campaign advocating against the union. As the UAW launched this latest campaign, some doubted that they’d be able to overcome anti-union sentiment in the South, where most states have “right-to-work” laws that prohibit unions from imposing membership on employees. Those laws have incentivized many automakers to consider building more new plants in the South, CNN notes.
Tuesday’s announcement comes days after the UAW accused Mercedes of holding an anti-union meeting where CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. Michael Göbel said he doesn’t “believe the UAW can help us to be better,” according to Bloomberg. Mercedes-Benz told Bloomberg the meeting was a routine meeting covering multiple topics, and Göbel also added each individual team member had to make their own decisions about unionization and the company must respect different opinions.