Mercedes workers in Alabama vote against joining UAW
Filip Timotija
Fri, 17 May 2024
THE HILL
Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama voted against joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) Friday, dealing a blow to the union that hopes to make progress in the south following a successful election in Tennessee last month.
Workers at the Vance, Ala., plant voted 2,642 to 2,045 against joining the union, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Around 5,100 auto workers were eligible to participate.
UAW hoped to continue its momentum in the south, following a historic win in April at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where approximately 73 percent of workers voted in favor of joining the union.
UAW has a week to challenge the result of Friday’s vote.
“Our goal throughout this process was to ensure every eligible Team Member had the opportunity to participate in a fair election,” Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) said in a news release following the results’ announcement. “We thank all Team Members who asked questions, engaged in discussions, and ultimately, made their voices heard on this important issue.”
UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges against the German manufacturer, claiming that Mercedes intimated workers in the lead-up to the contest, therefore breaching U.S. labor law.
If found liable, Mercedes could be forced to bargain with the union, under the NLRB standard.
“They tried to paint the union in a bad light, Fain said, later adding “We’re here to help people. That’s what we’re here for. We don’t have to intimidate or threaten nobody. We believe in democracy, we believe in workers having a voice and making their own decision.”
UAW President Shawn Fain was undeterred by the outcome, vowing that UAW will continue its efforts around the country and will ultimately organize auto manufacturing plants, including one in Vance where luxury SUVs are made.
“Sometimes Goliath wins a battle, but ultimately David will win the war,” Fain said in a press conference following the results’ announcement Friday.
“These workers will win their fair share and we’re going to be there every step of the way. We’ve been here before, we know what we’re taking on and this company like most others operates off [of] the same playbook, fear, threats, intimidation.”
Fain said that despite the loss, the union will continue “fighting” and plow ahead in hopes of organizing more in the South, an area of the country historically not as welcoming to the unions.
During the process, UAW faced political opposition from leaders of various states in the south.
Six governors warned workers in mid-April against joining the UAW, saying that it would impact their jobs and the “values we live by.”
Fain’s union spearheaded a walkout last year on the former “Big Three” auto makers. In the end, they were able to strike an agreement with all three automakers —General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — in October after a six-week strike.
“We’ll go back, we’ll, we’ll assess things, see where we are and keep moving, Fain said.
Blow to UAW as Mercedes workers in Alabama vote against unionization
Michael Sainato
TOM KRISHER and KIM CHANDLER
Updated Fri, 17 May 2024
UAW Mercedes
David Johnston, right, a worker at Mercedes, thanks UAW President Shawn Fain following a press conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on May 17, 2024, after workers at two Alabama Mercedes-Benz factories voted overwhelmingly against joining the United Auto Workers union.
Dave Jamieson
The letter Federico Kochlowski sent to Mercedes-Benz employees in Alabama ahead of the union vote. He asked workers to "give me a chance." Obtained by HuffPost
Rick Webster, an employee at the plant and member of the union’s organizing committee, said workers had been pulled into meetings leading up to the vote to hear talking points against the union.
“It’s been nonstop anti-union. We’ve had to go to meetings every day to watch videos or have them read off a piece of paper,” he said. “They’ve spent all this money on all these commercials and everything else. ... They’re just blowing all kinds of money on this thing, and it just hasn’t fazed us.”
The letter from Kochlowski prompted a rebuke from IndustriALL, the global union federation based in Europe that has come out in support of the UAW. The group says the Vance plant is Mercedes’ only non-union plant in the world.
IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie sent a letter to Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius on Tuesday to say he was “appalled” by the company’s “ongoing and massive violations of the principle of neutrality” in the union election.
It’s been nonstop anti-union. We’ve had to go to meetings every day to watch videos or have them read off a piece of paper.Rick Webster, Vance plant employee
Høie wrote that Mercedes was not supposed to take a position on the Vance election under the “Principles of Social Responsibility and Human Rights” agreement the company had signed alongside IndustriALL.
The agreement states: “In the event of organization campaigns, the company and its executives shall remain neutral.”
Høie wrote to Källenius, “I expect you to intervene immediately to ensure that neutrality prevails at least for the remaining four days of the vote.”
The news outlet Labor Notes reported earlier this week that Mercedes had enlisted a local pastor to speak to workers and discourage them from unionizing. “Mercedes-Benz has been an uplift for people like me,” Rev. Matthew Wilson said in a video aired at the plant, according to Labor Notes.
The UAW is coming off a landmark election win last month in Tennessee, where it unionized the Volkswagen plant after two previous failed attempts. The union is hoping a win this week in Alabama could turbocharge more organizing at auto plants in the South, despite continued political pressure from figures like Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who’s urged workers to vote against the UAW.
Webster predicted the union would prevail regardless.
“We’re gonna win this thing on Friday,” he said.
Michael Sainato
THE GUARDIAN
Fri, 17 May 2024
One of the Mercedes plants in Alabama.Photograph: Nora Eckert/Reuters
The United Auto Workers has failed in its effort to unionize workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a blow to the union’s plans to build its membership in the southern states.
The loss on Friday comes amid the UAW’s ambitious union-organizing campaign to organize 150,000 non-union auto workers around the US.
In April the UAW won a landslide victory at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where 73% of workers voted to unionize.
The final vote was 2,642 against union representation and 2,045 for. Fifty-six per cent of workers voted no.
Southern states have for decades successfully fought off unionization drives in an attempt to keep down labor costs – a practice critics have called the “Alabama discount”.
“Mercedes is a better place thanks to this campaign,” said Shawn Fain in a press conference after the results were announced. He cited the end of two-tier wages and a replacement of the chief executive as some of the successes workers won during the organizing campaign.
He said: “The federal government and the German government are currently investigating Mercedes for the intimidation and harassment that they inflicted on their own workers, and we intend to follow that process.”
At Mercedes, the union faced significantly more aggressive opposition to worker organizing efforts than at Volkswagen, including from Republican elected officials and business groups that campaigned against the union vote.
David Johnston, a worker at the Mercedes battery plant since August 2022, said he jumped at the chance to work at Mercedes when he heard they were directly hiring.
But promises and claims that were made to him when he was hired became exposed as false or misleading, he said, such as workers never being forced to work Sundays, or the two-tier wage system, and unilateral changes made by the company.
“They have changed their own handbook many times since I was originally hired, in just two years. They have also changed our schedules. My schedule personally has changed about six times since I was hired on,” said Johnston.
These factors and his previous experience working under a union contract inspired him to support the unionization effort, he said. Johnston said Mercedes-Benz’s attempt to dissuade workers from unionizing had only assisted workers’ organizing efforts.
Mercedes-Benz moved to head off the union drive by eliminating a two-tier wage system at the plants. That decision came after it was announced 30% of workers had signed union authorization cards.
“That quite honestly backfired for the company. It really showed workers that they’ve been listening to us the whole time, but did not care about us,” said Johnston. “It wasn’t until we decided that we wanted to union that the company even would respond to us.
“This isn’t political, regardless of what the governor wants to say. This isn’t something that the UAW came down to us seeking us to join them. This was us going to them asking them to represent us, that we would be allowed to call the shots on how we organized, and this has been 100% worker-driven. The people that are going to unionize are the people that live in the south.”
Now workers will push for a first union contract at Volkswagen as the UAW sets its sights on expanding their union wins in the auto industry. The UAW has so far announced reaching 30% thresholds of workers signing union authorization cards at a Toyota engine plant in Troy, Missouri, in March and at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama, in February.
Sharon Block, a law professor at Harvard Law School and former NLRB official, said: “There are legal avenues open to the UAW to challenge the outcome.
“As Mercedes’ anti-union campaign ramped up, the UAW filed a number of unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, alleging that Mercedes crossed the line from strongarm to unlawful tactics in the plants. In addition, there is an investigation under way into whether Mercedes violated German law by undertaking such an aggressive anti-union campaign in the US.”
A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz said: “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.”
Alabama Mercedes employees overwhelmingly vote against joining union, slowing UAW effort in South
Fri, 17 May 2024
One of the Mercedes plants in Alabama.Photograph: Nora Eckert/Reuters
The United Auto Workers has failed in its effort to unionize workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a blow to the union’s plans to build its membership in the southern states.
The loss on Friday comes amid the UAW’s ambitious union-organizing campaign to organize 150,000 non-union auto workers around the US.
In April the UAW won a landslide victory at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where 73% of workers voted to unionize.
The final vote was 2,642 against union representation and 2,045 for. Fifty-six per cent of workers voted no.
Southern states have for decades successfully fought off unionization drives in an attempt to keep down labor costs – a practice critics have called the “Alabama discount”.
“Mercedes is a better place thanks to this campaign,” said Shawn Fain in a press conference after the results were announced. He cited the end of two-tier wages and a replacement of the chief executive as some of the successes workers won during the organizing campaign.
He said: “The federal government and the German government are currently investigating Mercedes for the intimidation and harassment that they inflicted on their own workers, and we intend to follow that process.”
At Mercedes, the union faced significantly more aggressive opposition to worker organizing efforts than at Volkswagen, including from Republican elected officials and business groups that campaigned against the union vote.
David Johnston, a worker at the Mercedes battery plant since August 2022, said he jumped at the chance to work at Mercedes when he heard they were directly hiring.
But promises and claims that were made to him when he was hired became exposed as false or misleading, he said, such as workers never being forced to work Sundays, or the two-tier wage system, and unilateral changes made by the company.
“They have changed their own handbook many times since I was originally hired, in just two years. They have also changed our schedules. My schedule personally has changed about six times since I was hired on,” said Johnston.
These factors and his previous experience working under a union contract inspired him to support the unionization effort, he said. Johnston said Mercedes-Benz’s attempt to dissuade workers from unionizing had only assisted workers’ organizing efforts.
Mercedes-Benz moved to head off the union drive by eliminating a two-tier wage system at the plants. That decision came after it was announced 30% of workers had signed union authorization cards.
“That quite honestly backfired for the company. It really showed workers that they’ve been listening to us the whole time, but did not care about us,” said Johnston. “It wasn’t until we decided that we wanted to union that the company even would respond to us.
“This isn’t political, regardless of what the governor wants to say. This isn’t something that the UAW came down to us seeking us to join them. This was us going to them asking them to represent us, that we would be allowed to call the shots on how we organized, and this has been 100% worker-driven. The people that are going to unionize are the people that live in the south.”
Now workers will push for a first union contract at Volkswagen as the UAW sets its sights on expanding their union wins in the auto industry. The UAW has so far announced reaching 30% thresholds of workers signing union authorization cards at a Toyota engine plant in Troy, Missouri, in March and at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama, in February.
Sharon Block, a law professor at Harvard Law School and former NLRB official, said: “There are legal avenues open to the UAW to challenge the outcome.
“As Mercedes’ anti-union campaign ramped up, the UAW filed a number of unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, alleging that Mercedes crossed the line from strongarm to unlawful tactics in the plants. In addition, there is an investigation under way into whether Mercedes violated German law by undertaking such an aggressive anti-union campaign in the US.”
A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz said: “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.”
Alabama Mercedes employees overwhelmingly vote against joining union, slowing UAW effort in South
TOM KRISHER and KIM CHANDLER
Updated Fri, 17 May 2024
UAW Mercedes
David Johnston, right, a worker at Mercedes, thanks UAW President Shawn Fain following a press conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on May 17, 2024, after workers at two Alabama Mercedes-Benz factories voted overwhelmingly against joining the United Auto Workers union.
(AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, voted overwhelmingly against joining the United Auto Workers on Friday, a setback in the union’s drive to organize plants in the historically nonunion South.
The workers voted 56% against the union, according to tallies released by the National Labor Relations Board, which ran the election.
The NLRB's final tally showed a vote of 2,642 to 2,045 workers against the union. A total of 5,075 voters were eligible to vote at an auto assembly plant and a battery factory in and near Vance, Alabama, not far from Tuscaloosa, the board said. Nearly 93% of workers eligible to vote cast ballots.
The NLRB said both sides have five business days to file objections to the election. The union must wait a year before seeking another vote.
UAW President Shawn Fain told workers the results were not what the union had hoped for, but he said the UAW eventually will prevail. “These courageous workers reached out to us because they want justice,” he said.
He likened the union organizing effort to the fight between David and Goliath: Sometimes Goliath wins a battle, “but ultimately, David will win the war,” he said. “These workers will win their fair share.”
Fain said whether the union challenges the election results will be up to UAW lawyers. The union already has filed unfair labor practice complaints against the company alleging that management and anti-union consultants tried to intimidate workers. The company has denied the allegations.
“Obviously we’re following through on complaints, both here and in Germany” where Mercedes is headquartered, Fain said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who has campaigned against the union, wrote in a post on X that auto manufacturing is one of the state’s crown jewel industries, and the state is committed to keeping it that way.
“Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW,” she wrote. “We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election.”
Worker Melissa Howell, who opposed joining the union, said she and other employees realized that the UAW was making lofty promises that it couldn't put in writing, including pay of $40 per hour, pensions and better benefits.
“They kept repeating over and over, ‘You’re not going to lose anything. We're going to start with what you have right now,'” Howell said. “That's when we really started letting people know, 'Hey, hold up. It's all negotiable.'"
But Rick Garner, 60, who works in quality control at the Mercedes assembly plant and supported joining the union, said workers were shown an anti-union video every day ahead of the vote, while union opponents targeted employees who they thought could be persuaded to vote no.
“I’m disappointed in the people that flipped and believed the persuaders,” Garner said.
The loss slows the UAW's effort to organize 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion auto factories largely in the South.
The voting at the two Mercedes factories comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.
The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less drawn to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial Midwest states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would have represented a huge plum for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements that Southern states have bestowed on foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
Ivey and other Southern governors warned that voting for union membership could, over time, cost workers their jobs because of the higher costs that the auto companies would have to bear.
Yet the UAW was campaigning from a stronger position than in the past. Besides its victory in Chattanooga, it achieved generous new contracts last fall after striking against Detroit Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Workers there gained 33% pay raises in contracts that will expire in 2028.
Top-scale production workers at GM, who now earn about $36 an hour, will make nearly $43 an hour by the end of their contract, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes has increased top production worker pay to $34 an hour, a move that some workers say was intended to fend off the UAW.
Shortly after workers ratified the Detroit contract, Fain announced a drive to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion plants, mostly run by foreign-based automakers with plants in Southern states. In addition, Tesla’s U.S. factories, which are nonunion, are in the UAW’s sights.
It turns out that the union had a tougher time in Alabama than in Tennessee, where the UAW narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with workers at the factory. The UAW has accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to try to intimidate workers.
In a statement Friday, Mercedes said it looks forward to “continuing to work directly with our team members so they can build superior vehicles for the world.”
The company said its focus is on providing a safe and supportive work environment.
In an interview before the votes were tallied, Marick Masters, a business professor emeritus at Wayne State University in Detroit, said a loss would be a setback for the union but suggested it would not deal a fatal blow to its membership drive. The union will have to analyze why it couldn’t garner more than 50% of the vote, given its statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing an election, Masters said. The UAW wouldn’t say what percentage or how many workers signed up.
The loss could lead workers at other nonunion plants to wonder why Mercedes employees voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn’t think it will slow down the union.
The union has said it will continue organizing efforts at nonunion plants run by Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda.
__
Krisher reported from Detroit.
Mercedes-Benz Exec Implores Workers Ahead Of Union Vote: ‘Give Me A Chance’
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, voted overwhelmingly against joining the United Auto Workers on Friday, a setback in the union’s drive to organize plants in the historically nonunion South.
The workers voted 56% against the union, according to tallies released by the National Labor Relations Board, which ran the election.
The NLRB's final tally showed a vote of 2,642 to 2,045 workers against the union. A total of 5,075 voters were eligible to vote at an auto assembly plant and a battery factory in and near Vance, Alabama, not far from Tuscaloosa, the board said. Nearly 93% of workers eligible to vote cast ballots.
The NLRB said both sides have five business days to file objections to the election. The union must wait a year before seeking another vote.
UAW President Shawn Fain told workers the results were not what the union had hoped for, but he said the UAW eventually will prevail. “These courageous workers reached out to us because they want justice,” he said.
He likened the union organizing effort to the fight between David and Goliath: Sometimes Goliath wins a battle, “but ultimately, David will win the war,” he said. “These workers will win their fair share.”
Fain said whether the union challenges the election results will be up to UAW lawyers. The union already has filed unfair labor practice complaints against the company alleging that management and anti-union consultants tried to intimidate workers. The company has denied the allegations.
“Obviously we’re following through on complaints, both here and in Germany” where Mercedes is headquartered, Fain said.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who has campaigned against the union, wrote in a post on X that auto manufacturing is one of the state’s crown jewel industries, and the state is committed to keeping it that way.
“Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW,” she wrote. “We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election.”
Worker Melissa Howell, who opposed joining the union, said she and other employees realized that the UAW was making lofty promises that it couldn't put in writing, including pay of $40 per hour, pensions and better benefits.
“They kept repeating over and over, ‘You’re not going to lose anything. We're going to start with what you have right now,'” Howell said. “That's when we really started letting people know, 'Hey, hold up. It's all negotiable.'"
But Rick Garner, 60, who works in quality control at the Mercedes assembly plant and supported joining the union, said workers were shown an anti-union video every day ahead of the vote, while union opponents targeted employees who they thought could be persuaded to vote no.
“I’m disappointed in the people that flipped and believed the persuaders,” Garner said.
The loss slows the UAW's effort to organize 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion auto factories largely in the South.
The voting at the two Mercedes factories comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.
The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less drawn to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial Midwest states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would have represented a huge plum for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements that Southern states have bestowed on foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
Ivey and other Southern governors warned that voting for union membership could, over time, cost workers their jobs because of the higher costs that the auto companies would have to bear.
Yet the UAW was campaigning from a stronger position than in the past. Besides its victory in Chattanooga, it achieved generous new contracts last fall after striking against Detroit Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Workers there gained 33% pay raises in contracts that will expire in 2028.
Top-scale production workers at GM, who now earn about $36 an hour, will make nearly $43 an hour by the end of their contract, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes has increased top production worker pay to $34 an hour, a move that some workers say was intended to fend off the UAW.
Shortly after workers ratified the Detroit contract, Fain announced a drive to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion plants, mostly run by foreign-based automakers with plants in Southern states. In addition, Tesla’s U.S. factories, which are nonunion, are in the UAW’s sights.
It turns out that the union had a tougher time in Alabama than in Tennessee, where the UAW narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with workers at the factory. The UAW has accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to try to intimidate workers.
In a statement Friday, Mercedes said it looks forward to “continuing to work directly with our team members so they can build superior vehicles for the world.”
The company said its focus is on providing a safe and supportive work environment.
In an interview before the votes were tallied, Marick Masters, a business professor emeritus at Wayne State University in Detroit, said a loss would be a setback for the union but suggested it would not deal a fatal blow to its membership drive. The union will have to analyze why it couldn’t garner more than 50% of the vote, given its statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing an election, Masters said. The UAW wouldn’t say what percentage or how many workers signed up.
The loss could lead workers at other nonunion plants to wonder why Mercedes employees voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn’t think it will slow down the union.
The union has said it will continue organizing efforts at nonunion plants run by Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda.
__
Krisher reported from Detroit.
Mercedes-Benz Exec Implores Workers Ahead Of Union Vote: ‘Give Me A Chance’
Dave Jamieson
HUFFPOST
Updated Fri, 17 May 2024
The top Mercedes-Benz executive in the U.S. had a not-so-subtle message for workers as they headed to the polls this week to vote in a potentially historic union election.
Federico Kochlowski, the new president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, wrote in a letter to employees at the plant in Vance, Alabama, that the election marked “an important decision about how we work together for years to come.”
“And although I respect everyone’s right to take a position on this matter, I prefer that we work on our future together without anyone else between us,” he wrote, according to a copy obtained by HuffPost.
Kochlowski sounded as though he was pleading with employees near the end of the letter, telling them he was “a person of my word.”
“When I tell you I’m going to do something, you can trust that I will do everything in my power to make it happen,” he wrote. “I hope you’ll give me a chance to do what I came here to do.”
More than 5,000 employees at the plant are voting Monday through Friday this week to determine whether they join the United Auto Workers. The UAW has struggled to unionize manufacturing plants in Alabama, so an election win would mark a major organizing victory.
A Mercedes-Benz spokesperson said the company “can’t comment on individual correspondence.” The letter viewed by HuffPost had been mailed out to an employee last Thursday.
Updated Fri, 17 May 2024
The top Mercedes-Benz executive in the U.S. had a not-so-subtle message for workers as they headed to the polls this week to vote in a potentially historic union election.
Federico Kochlowski, the new president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, wrote in a letter to employees at the plant in Vance, Alabama, that the election marked “an important decision about how we work together for years to come.”
“And although I respect everyone’s right to take a position on this matter, I prefer that we work on our future together without anyone else between us,” he wrote, according to a copy obtained by HuffPost.
Kochlowski sounded as though he was pleading with employees near the end of the letter, telling them he was “a person of my word.”
“When I tell you I’m going to do something, you can trust that I will do everything in my power to make it happen,” he wrote. “I hope you’ll give me a chance to do what I came here to do.”
More than 5,000 employees at the plant are voting Monday through Friday this week to determine whether they join the United Auto Workers. The UAW has struggled to unionize manufacturing plants in Alabama, so an election win would mark a major organizing victory.
A Mercedes-Benz spokesperson said the company “can’t comment on individual correspondence.” The letter viewed by HuffPost had been mailed out to an employee last Thursday.
The letter Federico Kochlowski sent to Mercedes-Benz employees in Alabama ahead of the union vote. He asked workers to "give me a chance." Obtained by HuffPost
Rick Webster, an employee at the plant and member of the union’s organizing committee, said workers had been pulled into meetings leading up to the vote to hear talking points against the union.
“It’s been nonstop anti-union. We’ve had to go to meetings every day to watch videos or have them read off a piece of paper,” he said. “They’ve spent all this money on all these commercials and everything else. ... They’re just blowing all kinds of money on this thing, and it just hasn’t fazed us.”
The letter from Kochlowski prompted a rebuke from IndustriALL, the global union federation based in Europe that has come out in support of the UAW. The group says the Vance plant is Mercedes’ only non-union plant in the world.
IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie sent a letter to Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius on Tuesday to say he was “appalled” by the company’s “ongoing and massive violations of the principle of neutrality” in the union election.
It’s been nonstop anti-union. We’ve had to go to meetings every day to watch videos or have them read off a piece of paper.Rick Webster, Vance plant employee
Høie wrote that Mercedes was not supposed to take a position on the Vance election under the “Principles of Social Responsibility and Human Rights” agreement the company had signed alongside IndustriALL.
The agreement states: “In the event of organization campaigns, the company and its executives shall remain neutral.”
Høie wrote to Källenius, “I expect you to intervene immediately to ensure that neutrality prevails at least for the remaining four days of the vote.”
The news outlet Labor Notes reported earlier this week that Mercedes had enlisted a local pastor to speak to workers and discourage them from unionizing. “Mercedes-Benz has been an uplift for people like me,” Rev. Matthew Wilson said in a video aired at the plant, according to Labor Notes.
The UAW is coming off a landmark election win last month in Tennessee, where it unionized the Volkswagen plant after two previous failed attempts. The union is hoping a win this week in Alabama could turbocharge more organizing at auto plants in the South, despite continued political pressure from figures like Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, who’s urged workers to vote against the UAW.
Webster predicted the union would prevail regardless.
“We’re gonna win this thing on Friday,” he said.
What It’s Like Voting Union Inside Alabama Mercedes Plant
‘THIS IS OUR TIME’
On day three of the voting, Ryan was guardedly optimistic. He said that in an area he formerly worked in, the body shop, the best he had hoped for was a 50/50 split and that was now his prediction.
In the paint shop, Ryan said, “when the announcement came, people were like ‘This is our time! Let’s go! Let’s get it!’” Both union and anti-union stickers are being worn on hardhats and clothing.
Ryan was one of several Alabama auto workers who attended the Labor Notes Conference in Chicago in April. One workshop he attended was “Inoculation,“ about preparing your co-workers for management’s reaction to organizing.
Deb Sandifer, a materials handler, said the voting where she acted as a union challenger (observing the voting process on the union’s behalf and challenging potentially ineligible voters) took place in a curtained-off area that had been used to store empty boxes. She said management personnel were not in the area: “We made sure of that.“
She has seen more anti-union stickers in recent days and is “ready for the real thing”—the vote count on Friday morning, which she will be off work to observe.
‘WE WANT TO BE VISIBLE’
Kay Finklea, a 23-year employee who works in quality, said even at the last minute, union supporters are still answering a lot of questions.
“We are staying present so people can see that we are here,” she said. “We want to be visible in numbers. We are telling each other to have on your union attire, have people see you.“
Workers are required to wear a Mercedes shirt when they are on the clock—but they can unbutton it and have a union shirt underneath. They also have bracelets, caps, and vests.
Ryan said they had been handing out shirts and trying to set up “voting parties.“ That’s where people on a certain team get in early and wear their union shirts and go vote all together.
May 16, 2024
Source: Labor Notes
In the election on whether to join the United Auto Workers, being held over five days this week at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, the union negotiated rules to try to minimize management influence. The vote is taking place inside the plant.
Workers are allowed to vote on company time, at designated intervals. A golf cart carrying a union observer, a company observer, and a National Labor Relations Board agent tours the 5,200-worker plant. The agent announces through a bullhorn, and by holding up a card, that workers in a certain area are now excused to go vote, if they choose to.
Jacob Ryan, a Mercedes worker and an observer for the union, said that management personnel are not supposed to be in the area at the time of the announcement. It is his job to make sure they are not herding workers to the polls.
Ryan said Mercedes had initially wanted its managers to be the ones making the announcement, but the union resisted.
Mercedes has been requiring people to watch anti-union videos at their team meetings at the start of the shift. The time for discussing quality or safety problems from the day before is cut short so people can watch these mandatory videos, according to Rob Lett, who works in the battery plant and has nine years’ seniority.
In the election on whether to join the United Auto Workers, being held over five days this week at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, the union negotiated rules to try to minimize management influence. The vote is taking place inside the plant.
Workers are allowed to vote on company time, at designated intervals. A golf cart carrying a union observer, a company observer, and a National Labor Relations Board agent tours the 5,200-worker plant. The agent announces through a bullhorn, and by holding up a card, that workers in a certain area are now excused to go vote, if they choose to.
Jacob Ryan, a Mercedes worker and an observer for the union, said that management personnel are not supposed to be in the area at the time of the announcement. It is his job to make sure they are not herding workers to the polls.
Ryan said Mercedes had initially wanted its managers to be the ones making the announcement, but the union resisted.
Mercedes has been requiring people to watch anti-union videos at their team meetings at the start of the shift. The time for discussing quality or safety problems from the day before is cut short so people can watch these mandatory videos, according to Rob Lett, who works in the battery plant and has nine years’ seniority.
‘THIS IS OUR TIME’
On day three of the voting, Ryan was guardedly optimistic. He said that in an area he formerly worked in, the body shop, the best he had hoped for was a 50/50 split and that was now his prediction.
In the paint shop, Ryan said, “when the announcement came, people were like ‘This is our time! Let’s go! Let’s get it!’” Both union and anti-union stickers are being worn on hardhats and clothing.
Ryan was one of several Alabama auto workers who attended the Labor Notes Conference in Chicago in April. One workshop he attended was “Inoculation,“ about preparing your co-workers for management’s reaction to organizing.
Deb Sandifer, a materials handler, said the voting where she acted as a union challenger (observing the voting process on the union’s behalf and challenging potentially ineligible voters) took place in a curtained-off area that had been used to store empty boxes. She said management personnel were not in the area: “We made sure of that.“
She has seen more anti-union stickers in recent days and is “ready for the real thing”—the vote count on Friday morning, which she will be off work to observe.
‘WE WANT TO BE VISIBLE’
Kay Finklea, a 23-year employee who works in quality, said even at the last minute, union supporters are still answering a lot of questions.
“We are staying present so people can see that we are here,” she said. “We want to be visible in numbers. We are telling each other to have on your union attire, have people see you.“
Workers are required to wear a Mercedes shirt when they are on the clock—but they can unbutton it and have a union shirt underneath. They also have bracelets, caps, and vests.
Ryan said they had been handing out shirts and trying to set up “voting parties.“ That’s where people on a certain team get in early and wear their union shirts and go vote all together.
The Canadian Press
Thu, May 16, 2024
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union faces the latest test of its ambitious plan to unionize auto plants in the historically nonunion South when a vote ends Friday at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The voting at the two Mercedes factories — one an assembly plant, the other a battery-making facility — comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen's assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.
The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less drawn to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other industrial Midwest states.
A victory at the Mercedes plants would represent a huge plum for the union, which has long struggled to overcome the enticements that Southern states have bestowed on foreign automakers, including tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.
Some Southern governors have warned voting for union membership could, over time, cost workers their jobs because of the higher costs that the auto companies would have to bear.
Yet the UAW is operating from a stronger position than in the past. Besides its victory in Chattanooga, it achieved generous new contracts last fall after striking against Detroit Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Workers there gained 33% pay raises in contracts that will expire in 2028.
Top-scale production workers at GM, who now earn about $36 an hour, will make nearly $43 an hour by the end of their contract, plus annual profit-sharing checks. Mercedes has increased top production worker pay to $34 an hour, a move that some workers say was intended to fend off the UAW.
Shortly after workers ratified the Detroit contract, UAW President Shawn Fain announced a drive to organize about 150,000 workers at more than a dozen nonunion plants, mostly run by foreign-based automakers with plants in Southern states. In addition, Tesla's U.S. factories, which are nonunion, are in the UAW's sights.
About 5,200 workers at the Mercedes plants are eligible to vote on the UAW, the union's first election there. Balloting is being run by the National Labor Relations Board.
The union may have a tougher time in Alabama than it did in Tennessee, where the UAW had narrowly lost two previous votes and was familiar with workers at the factory. The UAW has accused Mercedes of using management and anti-union consultants to try to intimidate workers.
In a statement Thursday, Mercedes denied interfering with or retaliating against workers who are pursuing union representation. The company has said it looks forward to all workers having a chance to cast a secret ballot “as well as having access to the information necessary to make an informed choice” on unionization.
If the union wins, it will be a huge momentum booster for the UAW as it seeks 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 should be on notice," Masters said, “that the UAW will soon be knocking at their door more loudly than they have even in the recent past.”
If the Mercedes workers reject the union, Masters expects the 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 receive a fair election.
Though a loss would be a setback for the UAW, Masters suggested it would not deal a fatal blow to its membership drive. The union would have to analyze why it couldn't garner more than 50% of the vote, given its statement that a “supermajority” of workers signed cards authorizing an election, Masters said. The UAW wouldn't say what percentage or how many workers signed up.
A UAW loss, he said, could lead workers at other nonunion plants to wonder why Mercedes employees voted against the union. But Masters said he doesn't think an election loss would slow down the union.
“I would expect them to intensify their efforts, to try to be more thoughtful and see what went wrong,” he said.
If the UAW eventually manages to organize nonunion plants at Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Honda with contracts similar to those it won in Detroit, more automakers would have to bear the same labor costs. That potentially could lead the automakers to raise vehicle prices.
Some workers at Mercedes say the company treated them poorly until the UAW's organizing drive began, then offered pay raises, eliminated a lower tier of pay for new hires and even replaced the plant CEO.
Other Mercedes workers have said they prefer to see how the company treats them without the bureaucracy of a union.
___
Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
Tom Krisher And Kim Chandler, The Associated Press
No comments:
Post a Comment