Members and supporters of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on a picket line outside the ZF Chassis Systems plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US, on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
Andy Rice | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Unionization failed with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to nlrb, Which supervised the elections. The results showed that more than 90% of the 5,075 eligible workers at Mercedes-Benz voted in the elections.
The NLRB said 51 ballots were contested and not counted, but they were not decisive in the outcome of the election. There were five invalid ballots.
The union and company have five business days to submit objections to the elections, including any alleged interference To the NLRB. If no objections are raised, the election result will be certified, and the union will have to wait one year to file for a union election for a similar bargaining unit.
Mercedes-Benz said in a statement that company officials “look forward to continuing to work directly with our team members to ensure this.” [Mercedes-Benz US International] “Not only is it their employer of choice, but a place they recommend to friends and family.”
UAW President Sean Fine (right) and UAW Treasurer Margaret Mock (left) lead a march outside Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan after the union called a strike at the plant on October 23, 2023.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
The loss is expected to hurt the UAW in an unprecedented organizing drive launched late last year for 13 non-union U.S. automakers after securing record contracts with Detroit automakers Ford Motor Co., GM and Stellantis. These agreements included significant wage increases, cost-of-living adjustments and other benefits.
While it was clear the Mercedes-Benz vote was not the outcome the union wanted, it was a valiant effort, UAW President Sean Fine said, adding that the vote was “not a failure” but a “bump in the road.”
“As painful as this loss is, I will tell you this, we are going to keep our heads up, keep our heads up. These workers have nothing to do but be proud of the efforts they made and what they did,” he said Friday during a news conference. “We put up a good fight and we will continue to move forward.” . Ultimately, these workers here will win.”
The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to pose a bigger challenge for the union than at Volkswagen’s plant in Tennessee, where the union has already established a presence after two failed organizing attempts in the past decade and where it has faced less opposition from the automaker.
Stephen Sylvia, author of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Auto Plants,” noted that Mercedes-Benz replaced the plant’s leader weeks before the election. Companies routinely do this, promising worker turnover at their facilities in an attempt to avoid regulation, he said.
“Companies run anti-union campaigns because they can be effective, and I think this campaign was effective,” said Sylvia, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C. “A common part of the anti-union campaign is to fire the plant manager. That seems to have convinced enough workers to vote against the union.”
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, who was one of six Republican governors to condemn the union’s organizing drive, praised the outcome of the vote.
“The workers at Vance have spoken, and they have spoken clearly! Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the home sweet home of the UAW. We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election,” she said.
Workers at Mercedes-Benz’s Tuscaloosa plant, located about 60 miles southwest of Birmingham, have produced more than 4 million vehicles since the plant opened in 1997, including 295,000 vehicles in 2023, according to To the factory site.
The Alabama plant currently produces vehicles such as the gas-powered GLE and GLS Maybach SUVs, as well as the all-electric EQS and EQE SUVs.
The NLRB said last week that it continues to process and investigate open unfair labor practice charges brought by the UAW against automakers, including six unfair labor practice charges against Mercedes-Benz since March.
Fine said Friday that the union will continue to move forward with the charges. He refused to say whether the union was planning to challenge the election results, saying that he would “leave that to the union’s legal team.”
The charges allege that Mercedes-Benz “disciplined employees for discussing unionization at work, prohibited the distribution of union materials and tools, surveilled employees, discharged union supporters, forced employees to attend captive public meetings, and made statements indicating that union activity was futile.” “The NLRB said.
The union filed other charges against automakers Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Rivian, Tesla and Toyota, according to the NLRB.
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