Mercedes-Benz

By staff - International Trade Union Confederation, April 20, 2024

It is the first successful vote for unionisation at an auto factory in the southern USA since the 1940s. Nearly 75 per cent of workers voted for union representation.

The UAW has been expanding its efforts to organise auto factories in the south, which has been traditionally resistant to unionisation. As part of the plan to organise around 150,000 workers in car plants that have no union representation, elections are planned next month at the Mercedes-Benz manufacturing facilities in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “This victory at Volkswagen is not just a win for the workers there; it is an inspiration to create more democratic workplaces across the USA, the Americas and the whole world. As our campaign For Democracy makes clear, the workplace is the forge for democracy, from where it spreads to enrich society, and then builds the legitimacy to demand greater accountability at global institutions.

“This vote will empower the workers in Chattanooga to demand the fair conditions and respect they deserve through collective bargaining. I congratulate them on this history victory and the global trade union movement stands with them.

“Working people across the world and the USA can take courage and inspiration from this vote. It is possible to overcome long-standing barriers and benefit from the clear advantages of democratic, unionised workplaces. We stand with working people as they use the momentum from this historic win to gain democratic rights and representation at work.”

By Michaela Winter - Jobs With Justice, April 20, 2024

On Friday, August 19, Tennessee workers won their union in a resounding watershed victory. After two heartbreaking union elections at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant in 2014 and 2019, the votes have been tallied for a third, worker-led campaign to unionize the Volkswagen plant with the United Auto Workers. Workers overwhelmingly voted YES to join UAW. Despite facing interference from anti-worker politicians, workers in Chattanooga have made history.

Leading the South

The momentum of this win is groundbreaking for workers in Tennessee and represents the thrilling possibilities of workplace democracy not yet experienced in the majority of the southern United States. There is no doubt that this victory has arrived during a critical moment.

19 billion dollars of federal funding is being injected into Tennessee to support manufacturing and renewable energy infrastructure, and corporations have made it clear they plan to utilize similar funding in neighboring southern states. While the clean energy boom is set to create thousands of jobs, the risk of exploitation – in a region already disenfranchised by low-paying wages and poor safety standards – is a looming and urgent reality. Unless workers unite to demand their fair share of the clean energy future they will build. 

Workers will turn this energy towards union-hostile Alabama at a Mercedes plant in May before their election to join the UAW.

By John Russell, et. al. - More Perfect Union, April 19, 2024

By Luis Feliz Leon - Labor Notes, April 19, 2024

In a watershed victory, workers at the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted tonight "UAW, yes!" The company's sole non-union plant will finally join the rest of the world.

“If Volkswagen workers at plants in Germany and Mexico have unions, why not us?” said equipment operator Briam Calderon in Spanish, ahead of the vote.

"Just like Martin Luther King had a dream, we have a dream at Volkswagen that we will be UAW one day," said Renee Berry, a logistic worker on the organizing committee who's worked at the plant for 14 years.

The UAW is riding a wave of momentum after winning landmark contracts at the Big 3 automakers last year. Production workers at Volkswagen earn $23 per hour and top out above $32, compared to $43 for production workers at Ford’s Spring Hill assembly plant by the contract’s end in 2028.

“We could see what other auto workers were making compared to what we were making,” said Yolanda Peoples, a member of the organizing committee on the engine assembly line.

To head off a union drive, Volkswagen boosted wages 11 percent to match the immediate raise UAW members received at Ford. Peoples saw her pay jump from $29 to $32 an hour.

“When they went on strike, we paid close attention just to see what happened. Once they won their contract, it changed a lot of people from anti-union to pro-union members,” said Peoples.

Today’s vote was a key test of whether the union could springboard the strike gains to propel new organizing in longtime anti-union bastions in the South, the anchors of big investments in the electric-vehicle transition.

The vote was 2,628 in favor of forming a union to 985 against. There were seven challenged ballots, and three voided; 4,326 workers were eligible to vote.

Previous efforts at this plant in 2014 and 2019 had gone down to narrow defeats. Ahead of the vote, workers said their co-workers had learned from those losses.

They brushed off threats that a union would make the plant less competitive and lead it to close. After all, VW invested $800 million here in 2019 to produce the I.D. Electric SUV.

“We have seen the enemy’s playbook twice, and they don’t have any new moves,” said Zach Costello, a member of the organizing committee and a trainer on the assembly line. “It’s the greatest hits now.”

The organizing committee beat the predictable anti-union talking points with conversations across the plant.

“At the end of the day, we’ve been focusing all our time and attention on the people who matter,” said organizing committee member Isaac Meadows, “and it’s our co-workers who cast votes.

“Now Mercedes workers [in Alabama] are right behind us. We’ve set the stage for them to win and they will create the momentum for Hyundai and Toyota.”

Mercedes workers will vote from May 13-16, with a ballot count on the 17.

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, April 17, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, April 12, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, April 10, 2024

By Luis Feliz Leon - Labor Notes, April 10, 2024

Workers at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama were forced to attend 20-minute anti-union meetings with the company’s top management today.

Recordings obtained by Labor Notes show top management dangled carrots and put on a contrite-boss act, promising to do better.

Workers filed with the National Labor Relations Board on April 5 for the first-ever election to unionize the 5,200 people who work at the plant.

Mercedes claims to be neutral in the election, but it’s also listed as a supporter of the Business Council of Alabama’s anti-union website, Alabama Strong. The Auto Workers (UAW) has filed multiple unfair labor practice charges accusing the company of retaliating against pro-union workers.

“The meeting was a waste of time,” said battery plant worker David Johnston afterwards. “It was meaningless other than trying to develop sympathy from their workforce, saying they’ve held true to their promises and commitments made—committing to stay neutral, yet they couldn’t be anything further, especially after involving themselves with the anti-union organization Alabama Strong.”

Even after the captive-audience meeting, the momentum keeps building. “One of the guys in my shop that is on the fence told me we gained votes from that meeting,” said Jacob Ryan, a body shop worker who started out as a temp.

By Julia Conley - Common Dreams, April 5, 2024

The alleged illegal union-busting that Mercedes-Benz autoworkers in Vance, Alabama accused the car company of in a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board has not weakened the resolve of pro-union employees, a supermajority of whom now support a union election, according to the United Auto Workers.

The union announced Friday that more than 5,000 workers at the company's nonunion plant have filed a petition with the NLRB in favor of an election, with the workers aiming for a vote by early May.

"It's time for change at Mercedes," said the UAW. "It's time for justice in Alabama. It's time for Mercedes workers to stand up. That's why Mercedes workers have filed for their vote to join the UAW, and to win a better life."

The announcement comes weeks after Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee filed for a union election that's expected to be held April 17-19.

Both union votes are the result of aggressive campaigning by the UAW, including union president Shawn Fain, in the wake of a historic "stand-up strike" that pushed the Big Three automakers to agree to new contracts for about 150,000 workers late last year.

After the victory, Fain announced the launch of the largest union organizing drive in U.S. history, aiming to welcome 150,000 workers at nonunion auto plants into the UAW.

Over 10,000 autoworkers in recent months have signed union cards, and the UAW said Friday that employees at more than two dozen facilities are also organizing.

Mercedes' two U.S. plants in Alabama and South Carolina are its only facilities in the world where workers are not represented by a union. Workers in Vance say they want better healthcare, retirement security, safety protocols, and paid sick days.

Jeremy Kimbrell, a measurement machine operator at Mercedes, said the union vote is part of an effort to ensure carmakers no longer view Alabama as a state where workers can be compensated unfairly.

"We are standing up for every worker in Alabama," said Kimbrell. "At Mercedes, at Hyundai, and at hundreds of other companies, Alabama workers have made billions of dollars for executives and shareholders, but we haven't gotten our fair share. We're going to turn things around with this vote. We're going to end the Alabama discount."

Moesha Chandler, an assembly team member, said her job has given her "serious problems with my shoulders and hands."

"We are voting for safer jobs at Mercedes," said Chandler. "When you're still in your 20s and your body is breaking down, that's not right. By winning our union, we'll have the power to make the work safer and more sustainable.

The UAW celebrated the news out of Vance by releasing a video showing a recent rally where Fain encouraged workers to support the union effort.

By Paul Blest - More Perfect Union, April 5, 2024

Workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama have officially filed for a National Labor Relations Board election to join the United Auto Workers, the latest plant to do so since the UAW began an unprecedented $40 million drive to organize non-union auto and battery plants.

The more than 5,000 employees who will vote at the company’s only U.S. plant build several models in Mercedes’ SUV line, including its best-selling GLE luxury SUV and the electric EQE SUV. It is the second auto plant in the past month where workers have filed to join the UAW. More than 4,000 employees at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., will hold their union election later this month.

“They had the time to change and do right by us. And now it's gone,” Mercedes-Benz worker Moesha Chandler told More Perfect Union. “We're looking forward to UAW representing us. We don't want anything else from them.”

Under President Shawn Fain, the UAW launched the campaign in November to organize 150,000 non-union workers following historic simultaneous “stand up” strikes at the Detroit Three of Stellantis, GM, and Ford that resulted in record wage gains. Over 10,000 autoworkers have signed cards in recent months, the union said.

The non-union plants are operated by manufacturers based in Europe, Japan, and South Korea and by U.S. electric vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla and Rivian, and the facilities are largely located in states hostile to labor rights, including in the South. (See our new interactive map of the plants.)

In Alabama, the UAW is being opposed by Alabama’s political and business leaders including Gov. Kay Ivey, who has written op-eds denouncing their campaign and calling the union a “looming threat” to the Alabama economy. A report last year by the left-leaning think tank Alabama Arise found that Alabama autoworkers in 2019 were earning on average nearly $8,000 less than they did in 2002, when adjusted for inflation; Mercedes-Benz turned a profit of nearly $16 billion in 2023.