Mercedes workers vote no to union, putting the brakes on UAW's march South
It's a no. Autoworkers at Mercedes-Benz near Tuscaloosa have rejected joining the United Auto Workers union, by a vote of 2,642 to 2,045.
The results are a huge disappointment for the UAW, which has enjoyed a string of victories in recent months, starting with the historic strikes last fall against the Big Three carmakers Ford, GM and Stellantis that resulted in big wage gains and benefits for workers.
Just a month ago, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voted nearly 3-to-1 in favor of joining the UAW, upending longstanding assumptions about the South.
But the outcome in Alabama, where more than 5,000 workers build luxury SUVs, was never guaranteed. For decades, pro-union workers inside the plant could never gather enough support to call for a union election. This latest attempt, launched last fall, was by far their best shot.
The union loss at Mercedes will come as a relief to Alabama's political leadership, who framed the union vote as a threat to the state's economic success.
"We want to ensure that Alabama values, not Detroit values, continue to define the future of this great state," Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a speech to the Madison County Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
UAW says Mercedes has violated U.S. labor law by intimidating workers
Still, the UAW is unlikely to move on without a fight. Even before this week, the union had already filed unfair labor practice charges against Mercedes, alleging the company violated U.S. labor law by intimidating workers in the run-up to the election. Under a new standard adopted by the National Labor Relations Board last year, Mercedes could be ordered to bargain with the UAW if the company is found to have illegally interfered in the union election.
The UAW has also filed charges against Mercedes in Germany under a new law aimed at holding companies accountable for human rights violations in their global supply chains. According to the UAW, the German government has opened an investigation into the anti-union activities at the Mercedes plant in Alabama.
Mercedes workers were energized after UAW's big wins against the Big 3 automakers
The union campaign at Mercedes kicked off last fall, shortly after autoworkers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, formerly Chrysler, ratified record contracts to end their six-week strike. Impressed with the UAW's hard-charging negotiating tactics, Mercedes workers began to sign union authorization cards in droves, reaching what the UAW described as "a supermajority" by early April.
The workers called for higher wages and lower health care costs, aware that Big 3 autoworkers pay nothing in health care premiums thanks to their UAW contract. Mercedes workers also hoped having a union could help tame their unpredictable schedules.
Mercedes tried hard to dissuade workers from voting for the union
Still, it's one thing to sign an electronic card expressing support for a union drive. It's quite another to drop an official vote into a ballot box.
Mercedes used the intervening time to try to dissuade workers from voting for the union, something that Volkswagen notably did not do in the run-up to its union election in Tennessee last month.
For months, Mercedes started shifts by showing videos that warned about the failures of unions and the lack of say workers have in how their union dues are spent. As the election drew close, workers say they got text messages on their phones and were pulled into small group meetings with lawyers from an outside consulting group.
"The entire message in those meetings is Vote no, vote no, vote no. We don't think you need to do this. This is not what you want," said David Johnston, who works at the Mercedes battery plant.
Rob Lett, a union supporter who worked in assembly for seven years before moving to the the battery plant, says Mercedes' messaging likely did reach people who were apprehensive about the union.
"I feel like they were trying to jump on that fear and manipulate them," he said, although he'd hoped it wasn't enough to make a difference.
In a statement provided to NPR earlier this month, Mercedes said it "fully respects our team members' choice whether to unionize" while adding, "We believe open and direct communication with our team members is the best path forward to ensure continued success."
Politicians joined in the fray
Alabama politicians, including Gov. Ivey and Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, took a more strident tone, characterizing the UAW as an outside force hellbent on threatening Alabama's economic success. The state's Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair pointed to recent layoffs at the Big 3 automakers as proof that a lucrative union contract could backfire on Mercedes workers.
"Not only could there be layoffs, there could be investment made in other plants in other parts of the country or in other countries," McNair warned on Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal.
A new paper from the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., took a skeptical view of that claim.
Researchers noted that the Alabama plant has been the sole producer of unibody large luxury SUVs for Mercedes for nearly two decades. Its vehicles are sold not just in North America but exported globally. Its presence in the state has given rise to a robust supply chain network.
"Given this vantage position, any plant closure or relocation options for this plant seem remote given current circumstances and market conditions," the authors wrote.
With the union election over at Mercedes, it's unclear who might be next.
The UAW says at least 30% of workers at a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Ala., and a Toyota plant in Troy, Mo., have signed union cards, enough to petition federal labor officials for a union election. But the UAW has been waiting to amass well over a majority of support at a plant before taking that next step. [Copyright 2024 NPR]
