Workers at two Alabama Mercedes-Benz plants rallying with UAW President Shawn Fain ahead of a vote ... [+]
Update: This story was originally published at 3:48 p.m. EDT. It has been updated to include additional comments.
Workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama voted against joining the United Auto Workers, denying the union a bid to duplicate its historic victory last month at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee.
The vote was 2,045 to 2,642 against union representation, according to results released Friday by the National Labor Relations Board, which administered the vote.
“Parties have five business days to file objections to the election (alleging that there was interference in the election). If no objections are filed, the election result will be certified, and the union will have to wait one year to file for a union election,” an NLRB statement said.
Workers at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Vance and at a much smaller battery plant in Woodstock, both near Tuscaloosa, began voting Monday. Polls closed mid-morning Friday with 5,025 workers at the two plants eligible to vote, according to the NLRB.
UAW President Shawn Fain has made it a priority to attempt to organize non-union workers at foreign-owned auto plants in the South, but the union’s organizing efforts faced strong opposition in a state that takes pride in its anti-union culture.
He’s not letting the setback at Mercedes-Benz derail his long-range strategy.
“This is a David and Goliath fight. Sometimes Goliath wins a battle. But David wins the war,” Fain said in remarks after the vote. “The UAW will continue to lead the fight against corporate greed and runaway inequality. And through that fight we’ll change the nation and the world for the better. While this loss stings, these workers keep their heads held high. We fight the good fight and continue forward.”
“We look forward to continuing to work directly with our Team Members to ensure MBUSI is not only their employer of choice, but a place they would recommend to friends and family,” a statement issued by Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. said.
It went on to state, “At MBUSI, our primary focus is always to provide a safe and supportive work environment for our Team Members, so they can build superior vehicles for the world.”
Ahead of the Volkswagen vote, Fain said he was confident the union would succeed in organizing workers at the so-called transplants, but if it didn't happen, he added in an interview, “we're going to continue building. Workers want justice in this country.”
David Johnston, a worker at the Mercedes-Benz battery plant, was certain his co-workers would vote to join the UAW, declaring in an interview last week, “it’s gonna be a slam dunk, like at Volkswagen.”
But optimism expressed by the likes of Fain and Johnston was overcome by a those dead set against a Detroit-based union swooping into a state that’s attracted new business precisely because of its low-cost non-union labor force.
A group known as The Business Council of Alabama launched an aggressive anti-UAW campaign on its Alabama Strong website with such rhetoric as “with the UAW's long track record of strikes, layoffs, plant closures, and corruption, is this really a group you want to trust with your future and the future of Alabama's automotive industry?”
Prior to April’s vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey joined five other governors from southern states in signing a letter opposing UAW membership.
The UAW filed charges against parent company Mercedes-Benz AG last month alleging its “aggressive anti-union campaign against U.S. autoworkers in Alabama is a clear human rights violation under the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains.”
In his post-vote statement, Fain made note the U.S. and German governments are investigating the charges and “we intend to follow that process through.”
While not directly responding to the union’s allegations, in its post-vote statement Mercedes-Benz appeared to obliquely address them saying, “Our goal throughout this process was to ensure every eligible Team Member had the opportunity to participate in a fair election. We thank all Team Members who asked questions, engaged in discussions and voted in this election. We look forward to working with the NLRB to navigate next steps.”
A white paper released last week by the Center for Automotive Research considered the prospect of a union loss.
“A victory for the company would signal that workers value the work culture, employer-employee relationship and already enjoy what unionization might promise to offer,” wrote the authors of the paper titled “UAW's Next Frontier: Mercedes-Benz in Alabama,” written by Marick Masters, principal economist at the Center for Automotive Research and professor of business at Wayne State University.
It also looked at next steps for the union, writing, “Should the UAW suffer defeat, depending on how close the vote is, it will undoubtedly explore its legal options under the NLRB. While set back, the union will not lessen its resolve. It will assess where it went wrong and how to correct it. The fight to organize the non-union auto sector will only intensify on both sides as the stakes mount.”
The divergent results at Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz should not be a surprise, says one labor expert who notes reaction to unionization is not consistent between the foreign automakers, ranging from tolerance to strong resistance.
“So I think it varies. I think they were much less resistant in the most recent Volkswagen vote than they have been in the current Mercedes Benz vote,” observed Arthur Wheaton, direction of labor studies at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, in an interview. “So it's all over the map. Every automaker is different.”
