More than 5,000 Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama are voting this week on whether or not to join the United Auto Workers union, a decision that could lead to the German automaker mass-producing luxury sport-utility vehicles. Supporters and opponents alike argue that the impact will go far beyond the two factories near Tuscaloosa. Batteries for electric cars.
Conservative political leaders have portrayed the union movement organizing Mercedes workers as an attack by outsiders on the region's economy and way of life. The vote tally is expected to be announced by federal officials on Friday.
Last month, six Southern governors, including Alabama Republican Kay Ivey, issued a statement criticizing unions as “special interests who want to enter our states and threaten our jobs and the values we live by.” Announced. Alabama recently passed a law aimed at discouraging union organizing.
For unions, the victory joins a string of victories in the South, where organized labor has traditionally been weak, and provides momentum for the UAW's efforts to attract workers at other nonunion automakers, including Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Tesla. I will put it on.
If the UAW loses, union leader Sean Fein's campaign to organize auto and battery factories across the country could be significantly slowed down. The effort began after the union last fall reached a new contract with significant raises and other benefits for employees at Stellantis, the parent company of General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Chrysler, Jeep and Ram. Ta.
In Alabama, a crucible of the civil rights movement, union organizers and supporters launched the Mercedes campaign as part of a decades-long fight to dismantle an economic system built on the exploitation of the poor.
“You're not just fighting for the union,” Bishop William Barber II, an activist and Yale Divinity School professor, told a group of organizers, workers and supporters at a church in Montgomery on Monday. “You're fighting for justice.”
UAW supporters were optimistic as workers voted at the Mercedes car plant in Vance, Alabama, and at the company's factory near Woodstock, which assembles battery packs for electric vehicles. The National Labor Relations Board is overseeing the week-long vote.
“Right now we feel like we have the upper hand,” said Sammy Ellis, an organizer with the union that works on wiring Mercedes cars. He spoke outside a cluttered storefront office down the street from Vance's factory. There, activists sat strategizing on folding chairs surrounded by piles of placards with slogans like “Mercedes Workers United” and “Stop the Alabama Discount.”
Alabama's discount is a reference to the state's low wages and docile workers, which union activists say are the state's biggest attractions for investors. “They're taking advantage of the fact that workers in Alabama live in worse conditions than workers in other parts of the country,” said the International Machinists and Aerospace Labor Institute in Anniston, Alabama. Joe Cleveland, an official with the Association.
Mercedes said in a statement that the company “has a track record of competitively remunerating team members and offering many additional benefits.”
Workers who have worked at Mercedes for four years earn $34 an hour, and some employees say they appreciate the company's treatment.
“Mercedes is doing a lot for me,” Yolanda Berry, the automaker's team leader, said in a video posted to X by Autos Drive America. Auto's Drive America is an industry group representing Mercedes and other automakers with factories in the United States. Berry said he was making less than $14 an hour at his previous job.
The UAW is gaining momentum in the South after workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted for union representation in April. Also that month, the union won a significant pay increase for Daimler truck workers in North Carolina. If Mercedes, which spun off from Daimler Trucks in 2021, wins, its next campaign will be to strengthen its union and organize workers at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, about 100 miles south of Tuscaloosa.
The Korean company produces SUVs at its Montgomery plant, including the Tucson and Santa Fe models. Union organizers are also targeting a Honda plant in Lincoln, Alabama, where the Japanese company makes SUVs and pickup trucks. However, the effort is still in its early stages.
On Monday, about 50 activists and modern workers gathered at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Montgomery to sing union fight songs and hear from Bishop Barber.
Bishop Barber, borrowing the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., accused Southern political leaders of creating racial tensions. They “fear that black people and poor white people will unite to form a voting bloc that will fundamentally reshape the economic structure of the country and the nation,” he said.
Opposition to unions from Alabama's Republican political leadership is fierce. Nathaniel Ledbetter, the Republican speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, helped pass legislation denying state funding to companies that voluntarily recognize unions after comparing the UAW to a “leech.”
Although the law does not directly affect Mercedes' vote, it reflects a state of alarm among Republicans with close ties to business interests and their determination to block union advances. was. Ms. Ivey signed the bill on Monday.
“Unionization will undoubtedly put our states' jobs at risk,” Ivey said in a statement to the governors of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, all Republicans. Ta.
Mr. Ledbetter and Mr. Ivey's offices did not respond to requests for comment.
A union drive at a Hyundai plant in Alabama failed in 2016, but activists say things have changed. “In the beginning, people were easily intimidated and scared by anti-union tactics,” said Kichel Riggins, who has worked at the Hyundai plant for 12 years. “Now I'm ready.”
Hyundai is among several automakers that raised wages for workers after the UAW won benefits for union members at Ford, GM and Stellantis in an apparent effort to blunt union appeals. There was one company. Hyundai's salary increases announced in November amounted to 14% compared to the previous year, according to the company.
But for many Alabama autoworkers, wages aren't the only issue. Riggins, a single mother of two, said she hopes the union will protect people like her from long hours and unpredictable work schedules. “My manager told me that work was more important than my family,” she said.
Hyundai said in a statement that it is “committed to supporting quality jobs that pay competitive salaries and offer industry-leading benefits.”
Mercedes, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is accustomed to dealing with trade unions in its home country, where by law half of the members of the company's supervisory board represent employees. But in Alabama, the company is opposing union efforts. The UAW even accused the company of using illegal tactics.
The UAW accused Mercedes of disciplining employees who discussed unionizing in the workplace, preventing organizers from distributing union materials, conducting worker surveillance, and firing workers who supported the union. Six complaints were filed with the Labor Relations Board on suspicion of unfair labor practices against the company.
Mercedes denies the claims. The company said in a statement that it had “never interfered with or retaliated against any team member's right to union representation” and “categorically denies that it has ever made an adverse employment decision based on union membership.” I will,” he added.
Mercedes has also increased wages in recent months and worked to provide more notice to employees about schedule changes, employees said. But activist Mr Ellis said the improvements were only made possible “because of trade unions knocking on the door”.