United Auto Workers union efforts to organize other auto plants in the South are likely to slow and struggle to make progress after Friday's outages at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama there's a possibility that.
About 56 percent of Mercedes workers who voted rejected the UAW in the election, after the union won two major victories this year. In April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to unionize, becoming the first large non-union auto plant in the South to do so. A few weeks later, the union negotiated a new contract that provided significant improvements in pay and benefits for members at several plants in North Carolina owned by Daimler Trucks.
“Losing at Mercedes is not death for unions,” said Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “It just means they won't have the confidence to go to the next plant. The UAW is in it for the long term. I don't think losing here will stop them.”
Since its founding in 1935, the UAW has almost exclusively represented workers employed by three Michigan-based companies: General Motors, Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis. I did. And factories owned by foreign manufacturers have long struggled to move forward, especially in southern states where anti-union sentiment is strong.
Workers at the Volkswagen plant twice voted against UAW representation by a narrow margin until the union's recent victory there. He tried to organize one of the Mercedes factories 10 years ago, but was unable to gather enough support for elections.
Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, said widespread union organizing efforts rarely go smoothly. In the 1930s, the UAW gained recognition at GM and Chrysler, but struggled at Ford, which continued to employ nonunion workers for several years.
“I have no doubt that they will continue to organize and eventually try to vote again,” he said.
In previous efforts in the South, the union has been hampered by a negative image, which may have contributed to the UAW's loss against Mercedes. Three Michigan automakers have been cutting jobs and closing plants for years, citing strict and expensive labor contracts. The union was also hit by a corruption scandal that sent several former UAW officials to prison, including two former presidents.
Alabama business leaders campaigned against the UAW based in part on the argument that unions were to blame for Detroit's decline. Helena Duncan, chief executive of the Business Council of Alabama, wrote in a January opinion essay published in the Alabama Daily News that if workers vote to unionize, the state faces the same fate. He said that he would fall into
“Much of the decline that exists in today's 'automobile cities' stems from the intolerable demands the UAW has placed on automakers, and this foolish action has cost countless jobs to right-to-work states like ours. A once-great city has become a dysfunctional metropolis,” Duncan wrote.
A year ago, the union elected Sean Fein as its new president, who has stayed clear of corruption scandals and vowed to take a more aggressive approach in contract negotiations. And last fall, the union achieved significant wage and benefits improvements in negotiations with the Detroit automaker after a targeted strike that lasted about 40 days. Hundreds of southern autoworkers began reaching out for help organizing non-union plants. In response, the UAW announced it would spend $40 million over the next two years organizing the drive.
“I'm not scared at all,” Fein said Friday after the union lost the Mercedes vote in Alabama. “We believe workers want a union, we believe they want justice, and we're going to continue to do what we can.”
In a statement, Mercedes emphasized its direct relationship with workers and said it looked forward to becoming “a place they would recommend not only to their chosen employer, but also to their friends and family.” .
The union has indicated it plans to focus its organizing efforts on another plant in Alabama, the Hyundai plant in Montgomery. But organizing that factory will likely be even more difficult than the campaign at Mercedes' factory, said Eric Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who follows the auto industry.
The UAW had allies in Volkswagen and Mercedes. Labor unions are a powerful force in Germany, where both companies are based. Under German law, worker representatives must hold half of the seats on a company's supervisory board, which is equivalent to a board of directors in the United States.
Volkswagen and Mercedes both have groups called works councils where managers and employees discuss and negotiate workplace issues and production plans. In its work at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, the UAW had the support of the company's labor council and his IG Metall, a powerful union representing all autoworkers in Germany.
Gordon said the UAW won't get that kind of help at Hyundai's Montgomery plant. “In general, Korean car companies have a more hostile relationship with labor unions than German car manufacturers,” he said. “Korean companies are not very used to sitting in the boardroom with labor unions.”
Weeks after the UAW won wage and benefit increases from three Michigan-based automakers last year, Hyundai announced it would significantly raise wages for its workers over the next four years. The move is widely seen as an attempt to reduce workers' interest in wages. join the UAW
“Union representation is up to team members,” Hyundai said in a statement.
The Montgomery plant manufactures two popular sport-utility vehicles, the Tucson and Santa Fe, and employs approximately 4,000 people. An initial UAW effort to organize the plant in 2016 died down without a vote.
Last fall, the union closed factories owned by 10 foreign automakers (Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda, Volvo) and another factory owned by Texas-based Tesla. announced plans to target them. , and two small electric vehicle startups, Lucid and Rivian, both based in California.
About 150,000 workers are employed in 13 states at U.S. factories owned by these foreign and U.S. companies, according to the union.
But in Alabama, the UAW faced perhaps a tougher environment than anywhere else. While campaigning at Mercedes, Gov. Kay Ivey spoke out against labor unions, leading a group of six Southern state governors, all Republicans, to argue that unionization would force automakers to move jobs out of state. They have issued a letter indicating that they may be relocated. One senior Alabama politician described the UAW as a “leech.”
Mercedes brought in Nick Saban, a hugely popular former University of Alabama football coach, to talk to workers in an effort to convince them to vote against the UAW.
Labor unions are traditionally seen as Northern organizations and are often tied to the civil rights movement, which alienated many people in Alabama, Gordon said. “It's a very tough situation for the UAW,” he said.
Such backlash could also make it difficult for the UAW to negotiate contracts that guarantee raises and other benefits for its members, even if it wins union votes. Lawmakers opposed to unions could put pressure on employers not to make significant concessions in negotiations.
Fein and the UAW have argued that unions are the best way for workers to demand higher wages when automakers enjoy strong sales and profits in North America.
Public support for labor unions, including in the South, is stronger than it has been in recent years. This year, 600 workers at an electric bus factory in Alabama voted to join the Communications Workers of America union. A week ago, they negotiated a new contract with higher pay and better benefits.
The UAW and other unions have also received support from President Biden. Last fall, he joined striking autoworkers on picket lines in Michigan. Labor unions supported Biden in this year's election.
But a close relationship with the president could also hurt the UAW with conservative workers in southern states who favor Biden's opponent, former President Donald J. Trump. Although Fein and Trump have often criticized each other, polls show a sizable minority of union households support the former president.
