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By Nora Eckert and David Shepardson
DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Workers at a Mercedes Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, have asked U. S. regulators to hold elections to join the United Auto Workers union, the union said on Friday.
The SUV plant is time to register an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in recent weeks. Reuters has reported in the past that Mercedes staff in Alabama would file a petition with the NLRB as soon as this week.
The UAW said a “vast majority” of the more than 5,000 eligible Mercedes at the plant have signed union club cards. The UAW expects a vote until early May.
The election comes after months of mobilization efforts across more than a dozen non-union automakers owned by foreign corporations such as Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor, as well as electric vehicle makers such as Tesla and Rivian.
After securing record contracts for the Detroit Three (General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis), UAW President Shawn Fain pledged to accomplish a purpose that union organizing has failed to accomplish in recent decades: welcoming a new automaker into its unionized ranks.
The UAW’s latest efforts come at a time when it has a best friend in the White House. President Joe Biden, who last fall joined a UAW line in Michigan, a key battleground state in this fall’s election, has supported the UAW’s efforts to organize nongovernmental organizations. – Automobile Manufacturers’ Union.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, at a Volkswagen plant, they were the first to call a UAW vote, which is expected to conclude by April 19. UAW organizers twice lost the vote at this plant, narrowly missing a majority in 2014 and 2019. There have also been failed attempts to set up factories owned by Japanese automaker Nissan.
Union officials have claimed in filings with federal regulators that some automakers are retaliating or obstructing their attempts to unionize. The industry’s union organization filed a complaint against Mercedes on Wednesday for violating Germany’s new Global Supply Chain Practices Act, which prohibits German corporations from trampling on the ‘right to form unions’.
The company responded to some of the union’s allegations, saying they were inaccurate. He also mentioned the right of his employees to organize. (Reporting by Nora Eckert and David Shepardson; editing by Ben Klayman and David Gregorio)