DETROIT– The United Auto Workers union faces the final test of its ambitious plan to unionize auto plants in the historically non-union South when voting ends Friday at two Mercedes-Benz plants near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The vote at the two Mercedes plants — one an assembly plant, the other a battery plant — comes a month after the UAW won a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, attracted by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.
The UAW had until then had little success recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers were far less attracted to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial states in the Midwest.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would be a huge feather in the cap for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements Southern states have given to foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a non-union workforce.
Some southern governors have warned that voting to unionize could cost workers their jobs in the long run because of the higher costs auto companies would have to bear.
Still, the UAW is operating from a stronger position than in the past. In addition to the win in Chattanooga, it won generous new contracts last fall after attacking Detroit’s Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Employees there received a 33% pay increase thanks to contracts that expire in 2028.
Top production workers at GM, who now earn about $36 an hour, will earn nearly $43 an hour by the end of their contracts, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes has raised the pay of its top production workers to $34 an hour, a move some workers say was intended to ward off the UAW.
Shortly after the workers ratified the contract in Detroit, UAW President Shawn Fain announced an initiative to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen non-union factories, mostly run by foreign automakers with factories in the Southern states. Additionally, Tesla’s non-union U.S. factories are in the UAW’s crosshairs.
About 5,200 workers at Mercedes plants are eligible to vote for the UAW, the union’s first election there. The voting is handled by the National Labor Relations Board.
The union may have a tougher time in Alabama than in Tennessee, where the UAW had narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with the workers at the plant. The UAW has accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to intimidate workers.
In a statement Thursday, Mercedes denied interfering with or retaliating against employees seeking union representation. The company has said it looks forward to all employees having the opportunity to cast a secret ballot “and having access to the information needed to make an informed choice” about union membership.
If the union wins, it will give a huge boost to the UAW, which is trying to organize more factories, said Marick Masters, a professor emeritus at Wayne State University’s business school who has long studied the union.
“The other companies need to be aware,” Masters said, “that the UAW will soon be knocking on their door louder than they have even in the recent past.”
If Mercedes workers reject the union, Masters expects UAW leadership to explore legal options. This could include arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that Mercedes’ actions made it impossible for union representation to have fair elections.
While a loss would be a setback for the UAW, Masters suggested it would not deal a fatal blow to its membership drive. The union should analyze why it could not get more than 50% of the vote, given the statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing elections, Masters said. The UAW would not say what percentage or how many employees have signed up.
A UAW loss, he said, could cause workers at other non-union plants to wonder why Mercedes workers voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn’t think an election loss would slow down the union.
“I would expect them to step up their efforts, try to be more thoughtful and see what went wrong,” he said.
If the UAW is ultimately successful in organizing non-union factories in Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda with contracts similar to those in Detroit, more automakers would have to bear the same labor costs. This could possibly lead to car manufacturers raising car prices.
Some Mercedes workers say the company treated them poorly until the UAW organizing drive kicked in, then offered raises, eliminated lower pay for new hires and even replaced the plant’s CEO.
Other Mercedes workers have said they prefer how the company treats them without the bureaucracy of a union.
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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
