Staff at two Mercedes-Benz factories close to Tuscaloosa, Ala., voted on Friday in opposition to becoming a member of the United Car Staff, a shocking blow to the union’s marketing campaign to realize floor within the South, the place it has historically been weak.
The defeat got here after Kay Ivey, Alabama’s governor, and different Republican leaders argued {that a} pro-union vote would choke off the funding that has remodeled the state into a significant auto producer. Hyundai and Honda even have giant factories in Alabama that the U.A.W. is making an attempt to prepare.
The vote took on nationwide significance as a check of whether or not the U.A.W. may construct on a string of current victories and acquire floor in a state whose elected officers have been hostile to organized labor. The union has mentioned it needs to prepare each car manufacturing facility in the US, increasing its membership to incorporate the staff of corporations like Toyota and Tesla.
However the loss on the Mercedes vegetation will nearly absolutely decelerate the union’s marketing campaign and doubtless pressure it to do extra spadework to safe the help of employees earlier than looking for to carry elections at different auto vegetation. Union leaders will need to spend time determining how greatest to counter the messages and ways of native lawmakers and firm executives.
“It hurts to lose, little question,” Elizabeth Shuler, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., mentioned on Friday. “However we see it not as a loss, however a short lived setback. Staff will persevere it doesn’t matter what it takes.”
Mercedes employees voted 56 % to 44 % in opposition to becoming a member of the union, in accordance with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the election. Near 4,700 ballots had been forged, representing a big majority of the 5,075 workers who had been eligible to vote.
Auto executives and conservative lawmakers are more likely to carefully examine the vote at Mercedes to determine the perfect approaches to fend off the U.A.W. and different unions in future contests and to discourage union campaigns from the get-go.
The South has turn out to be an necessary battleground. States like Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee are attracting a lot of the billions of {dollars} that automakers and suppliers are investing in electrical car and battery factories. The U.A.W. needs to characterize employees at these factories.
Mercedes produces sport utility autos at a manufacturing facility in Vance, Ala., and battery packs for electrical autos at a plant in close by Woodstock. Polling had been underway all week on the two factories.
“We thank all crew members who requested questions, engaged in discussions and, finally, made their voices heard on this necessary problem,” the corporate mentioned in a press release on Friday.
In a marketing campaign performed largely by phrase of mouth, union activists argued that along with higher pay and advantages, the U.A.W. would defend Mercedes employees from abrupt modifications of their schedules and lengthy shifts, together with on weekends.
“If it wasn’t for us constructing these automobiles, you wouldn’t be placing the cash that you simply’re placing in your pockets,” mentioned Kay Finklea, who works in high quality management at Mercedes and campaigned for the union. “So deal with us with dignity, deal with us with respect and pay us.”
However activists acknowledged that many employees who had been sad with working situations at Mercedes had been additionally reluctant to affix the union, swayed by warnings from firm executives and politicians that membership would result in onerous dues and lack of management over their jobs.
Mercedes tried laborious to dam the union. Final month, in an obvious try to handle worker complaints, the corporate shook up native administration, appointing Federico Kochlowski as chief government of the German firm’s U.S. unit.
Mr. Kochlowski, who has labored at Mercedes for about 20 years in numerous manufacturing positions in China, Mexico and the US, acknowledged that there have been issues on the Alabama vegetation and promised to make enhancements. “I perceive that many issues aren’t OK,” he mentioned in a video posted by Mercedes on-line. “Give me a shot.”
Union activists famous that Mr. Kochlowski had already been a member of prime administration and interpreted his appointment as a last-minute try and fend off the U.A.W.
The U.A.W. has filed six costs of unfair labor practices in opposition to Mercedes with the labor relations board, saying the corporate disciplined workers for discussing unionization at work, prevented organizers from distributing union supplies, performed surveillance of employees and fired employees who supported the union.
Mercedes denies the claims.
Earlier makes an attempt by the U.A.W. to characterize employees at Mercedes and different auto producers within the South have failed. However the U.A.W. is stronger than it has been in years after profitable a unionization vote at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee final month after shedding two earlier elections at that plant. The union additionally received hefty pay raises final yr for employees at Ford Motor, Basic Motors and Stellantis, the dad or mum firm of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram.
Mercedes employees who help becoming a member of the U.A.W. mentioned they’d preserve combating.
“Mercedes goes to be unionized,” Robert Lett, who works within the Woodstock battery manufacturing facility and campaigned for the union, mentioned forward of the vote. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Friday or sooner or later. There’s an excessive amount of frustration there for us to not ultimately unionize.”