Update: This story was originally published at 3:48 p. m. EDT. It has been updated to include more comments.
Workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama voted against joining the United Auto Workers union, denying the union a chance to mirror its historic victory last month at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee.
The vote opposed union representation by 2,045 votes to 2,642, according to the effects released Friday through the National Labor Relations Board, which administered the vote.
“Parties have five calendar days to register objections to the elections (alleging interference in the elections). If no objection is registered, the result of the election will be qualified and the union will have to wait a year to register a union election application. ” said an NLRB.
Workers at Vance’s Mercedes-Benz assembly plant and a much smaller battery plant in Woodstock, near Tuscaloosa, began voting Monday. Voting ended mid-morning Friday with 5,025 employees at the two plants eligible to vote, according to the NLRB.
UAW President Shawn Fain has made it a precedent to try to unionize non-union staff at foreign auto plants in the South, but the union’s unionization efforts have met stiff opposition in a state that prides itself on its anti-union culture.
He’s allowing the Mercedes-Benz setback to derail his long-term strategy.
“It’s a fight between David and Goliath. Sometimes Goliath wins a battle. But David is winning the war,” Fain said after the vote. “The UAW will continue to lead the fight against corporate greed and rampant inequality. And through this fight, we will replace the country and the world for the better. Although this loss is painful, those staff are holding their heads high. We’re fighting smart and moving forward.
“We look forward to working directly with our team members to ensure that MBUSI is not only their employer of choice, but also a position they would present to their friends and family,” said a statement released by Mercedes-Benz U. S. International. Cª
He goes on to say, “At MBUSI, our main goal is to provide a safe and conducive racing environment for our team members, so that they can build the highest quality cars for the world. “
Before Volkswagen’s vote, Fain said he was confident the union would succeed in organizing staff in so-called transplants, but if that didn’t happen, he added in an interview, “we’re going to keep building. Workers need justice. ” in this country.
David Johnston, an employee at the Mercedes-Benz battery plant, was confident his colleagues would vote to join the UAW and said in an interview last week, “It’s going to be very simple, like at Volkswagen. “
But the optimism expressed through Fain and Johnston triumphed through fierce opposition to the concept of a Detroit-based union that would gain a foothold in a state that attracts new businesses precisely because of its low-cost, non-union workforce.
An organization known as The Business Council of Alabama featured a competitive crusade against the UAW on its Alabama Strong website with rhetoric such as “with the UAW’s long history of strikes, layoffs, plant closures, and corruption, is this an organization that you want?Confident in your future and that of Alabama’s auto industry?
Ahead of the April vote at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey joined five governors from southern states in signing a letter opposing UAW membership.
The UAW filed a lawsuit last month against parent company Mercedes-Benz AG, alleging that its “aggressive anti-union crusade against U. S. autoworkers in Alabama constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights under the German Law on Companies’ Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains. “”
In his statement after the vote, Fain noted that the U. S. and German governments were investigating the allegations and “we intend to continue this procedure to the end. “
Without directly responding to the union’s allegations, in its post-vote statement, Mercedes-Benz gave the impression of addressing them indirectly, saying: “Our goal with this procedure was to ensure that each and every eligible member of the team had the opportunity to take part in a fair election. We thank all the team members who asked questions, participated in the discussions, and voted in this election. We look forward to reaching out to the NLRB to take the next steps. “
A white paper published last week through the Centre for Automotive Research speaks to the prospect of a union loss.
“A corporate victory would mean that employees value the work culture, the employer-employee relationship, and already appreciate what unionization can offer them,” write the authors of the article, “The UAW’s Next Frontier: Mercedes-Benz in Alabama. “by Marick Masters, senior economist at the Center for Automotive Research and professor of business at Wayne State University.
He also discussed the union’s next steps, writing, “If the UAW suffers a defeat, depending on the final results of the vote, it will no doubt explore its legal features within the framework of the NLRB. Even if it’s in the background, the syndicate won’t diminish your resolve. It will evaluate where it went and how to correct it. The struggle to organize the non-union auto sector will only intensify on both sides as the risks increase. “
The divergent effects on Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz are not a surprise, says a labor expert who notes that the reaction to unionization is not consistent among foreign automakers, ranging from tolerance to strong resistance.
“So I think it varies. I think they were much less resilient in the last vote on Volkswagen than they were in the current vote on Mercedes Benz,” said Arthur Wheaton, director of social studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. he said in an interview. ” So it’s everywhere on the map. Every automaker is different.
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