United Auto Employees (UAW) members and supporters are on the picket line outdoors the ZF Chassis Techniques plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S., Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
Andy Rice | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Mercedes-Benz employees in Alabama voted towards union illustration from the United Auto Employees, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board stated Friday.
The outcomes are a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after the Detroit union received an organizing drive amongst some 4,330 Volkswagen plant employees in Tennessee. Voting opens on Monday and ends on Friday.
Union organizing failed, with 56 % of the vote, or 2,642 employees, voting towards the UAW, in keeping with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which oversaw the election. The outcomes confirmed that greater than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz staff participated within the election.
The NLRB stated 51 ballots had been challenged and never counted, however they didn’t decide the end result of the election. There have been 5 invalid votes.
Unions and firms have 5 enterprise days to boost objections to the election, together with any alleged interference, in keeping with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. If no objections are filed, the election outcomes are licensed and the union should wait a yr earlier than submitting for a union election much like a bargaining unit.
Mercedes-Benz stated in a press release that firm officers “stay up for persevering with to work straight with our crew members to make sure [Mercedes-Benz US International] Not simply an employer of their alternative, however a spot they might suggest to family and friends.
United Auto Employees President Shawn Fain (proper) and UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock (left) on the Stellantis Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, after a union strike on Oct. 23, 2023. Main parades outdoors.
Michael Weiland/CNBC
Late final yr, 13 non-union U.S. automakers launched an unprecedented organizing drive after signing a document contract with the Detroit automaker, a loss anticipated to harm the UAW Ford, Common Motors and star. The agreements embody vital wage will increase, the restoration of cost-of-living changes and different advantages.
UAW President Shawn Fain stated that whereas the Mercedes-Benz vote was clearly not the end result the union needed, it was a valiant effort, including that the vote was “not a failure” however ” The bumps within the highway.”
“Whereas this loss is painful, I’ll let you know, we are going to maintain our heads excessive and our hearts held excessive. These employees don’t have anything to do however be happy with their efforts and every thing they do,” he informed a media convention on Friday. “We fought the great combat and we will hold going and hold going. Finally, these employees listed here are going to win.”
The Mercedes-Benz vote is anticipated to be more difficult for the union than on the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, the place the union has established a presence after two failed organizing drives up to now decade and is below strain from automakers There may be much less opposition from businessmen.
Stephen Sylvia, creator of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Employees at International-Owned Auto Crops,” famous that Mercedes-Benz changed the plant’s chief simply weeks earlier than the election. He stated corporations typically do that by promising staff to alter garments at their factories to keep away from organizing.
“Corporations launch anti-union campaigns as a result of they are often efficient, and I believe this marketing campaign is efficient,” stated Sylvia, a professor at American College in Washington, D.C. “A standard ingredient of anti-union campaigns is to fireplace manufacturing unit managers…” …It appears Satisfied sufficient employees to vote towards the union.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, one among six Republican governors to denounce the union organizing drive, welcomed the outcomes.
“The employees of Vance have spoken and so they have spoken! Alabama is just not Michigan and we aren’t a candy dwelling for the UAW. We urge the UAW to respect this secret poll vote outcomes,” she stated.
Employees on the Mercedes-Benz Tuscaloosa plant, about 60 miles southwest of Birmingham, have produced greater than 4 million automobiles because it opened in 1997, together with 295,000 by 2023, in keeping with the plant’s web site. automotive.
The Alabama plant at present produces automobiles such because the gasoline-powered GLE and GLS Maybach SUVs and the all-electric EQS ​​and EQE SUVs.
The NLRB stated final week it will proceed to deal with and examine public unfair labor follow fees introduced by the UAW towards automakers, together with six unfair labor follow fees towards Mercedes-Benz since March.
Fein stated Friday the union would proceed to press the fees. He declined to say whether or not the union deliberate to problem the election outcomes, saying he would “go away that to” the union’s authorized crew.
The criticism alleges that Mercedes-Benz “disciplined staff who mentioned union points at work, prohibited the distribution of union supplies and paraphernalia, spied on staff, fired union supporters, compelled staff to attend closed viewers conferences, and issued statements suggesting that Union exercise is futile, Nationwide Labor Council says.
The union has additionally leveled different fees towards the automaker Honda, fashionable, awake, Rivian, Tesla and Toyota, In accordance with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board.
