Mercedes union vote fails: Workers reject UAW plans for Alabama automaker (2024)

Workers at Mercedes-Benz’s automotive plants east of Tuscaloosa have voted against being represented by the United Auto Workers union.

The workers voted 2,045 to 2,642 against union representation, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

There were 51 challenged ballots that will not be counted, because they will not change the outcome of the election, the NLRB stated. There were five void ballots. The total number of eligible voters was 5,075.

Each side has five business days to file objections to the election, alleging that there was interference in the election.

If no objections are filed, 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.

If objections are filed, the NLRB Regional Director will decide if there should be a hearing about the objections. If any objections are sustained after a hearing, this election will be rerun.

UAW President Shawn Fain, speaking after the vote, said what happens next will be up to the workers.

“They wanted justice. They led us, they led this fight,” Fain said. “What happens next is up to them.”

Fain called the losing vote a “bump in the road” and said the effort had some gains, including improvements to safety, salary and the recent resignation of Alabama CEO Michael Göbel.

If the majority of workers had voted yes, the Mercedes plant in Vance, its main automaking plant in Alabama, and the electric battery plant in Woodstock, would have become the first vehicle factories in the state to be represented by UAW.

The labor union’s Alabama campaign followed a landslide win last month with 73% of auto workers at Volkswagen’s factory in Chattanooga choosing UAW representation.

Read more about the Alabama Mercedes union battle

Production and maintenance workers voted in the secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board’s Region 10 Atlanta office. Employees started voting on Monday.

Follow us here for the latest on today’s vote count throughout the day.

Live updates:

2:33 p.m. The vote stands at 44% for and 56% against the union, with 4,687 ballots cast.

2:20 p.m. With less than 1,000 of the ballots expected to have been cast in the union vote counted, the mood at an UAW gathering is moody, somber and largely silent. Few workers are present and most of those who are not waiting in silence are the journalists waiting to report on what looks to be the failure to organize Alabama Mercedes workers. The vote stands at 44% for and 56% against the union, with 4,377 ballots cast. Roughly 5,200 ballots were thought be submitted.

2:18 p.m. The vote stands at 45% for and 55% against the union, with 4,333 ballots cast.

2:12 p.m. The vote stands at 44% for and 56% against the union, with 3,739 ballots cast.

2:05 p.m. No matter the outcome of today’s union vote, the election could be delayed by challenges, leaving unclear whether the United Auto Workers will negotiate on behalf of thousands of employees.

The losing side is more likely to file a challenge if the election comes down to a small number of votes, said Abe Walker, an assistant professor of Sociology who researches the labor movement at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

“It’s always possible to find a small cadre of anti-union workers who claim their rights have been violated, and that’s all it takes to challenge an election.”

1:41 p.m.

The vote stands at 45% for and 55% against the union, with 1,995 ballots cast.

1:33 p.m.

The vote stands at 44% for and 56% against the union, with 1,608 ballots cast.

1:06 p.m.

Union officials expect about 5,000 ballots to be cast. Initial results with only 295 votes cast is 51% no, 49% yes.

12:28 p.m.

If UAW membership is approved, workers won’t pay membership dues until they have completed the bargaining process and vote to approve the first contract. After that, each individual worker will then decide if they want to pay dues. Dues are 2.5 hours of straight time pay per month but overtime is not factored in the equation.

12:25 p.m.

Rick Webster, a Mercedes employee, said during a press conference held during the vote tally that today is the “first hurdle.”

“We’ve got a long fight ahead. We’ve got to keep that same energy up that we had leading into the vote.”

The historic nature of the vote did not escape Webster.

“I mean, we’re going to make history today. I mean, the last time that this was done on the first go by a group of workers was 1941, he said, referencing the historic vote that unionized Ford, the last major U.S. automaker to recognize unions. “It’s going to mean the world to us. It’s going to be life changing.”

For those who voted “no,” Webster urged cooperation.

“We still have to work together. No matter how this goes, it does not matter. At the end of the day, we are still fellow employees,” he said.

Noon

Kristina and Andrew Hall came from Chattanooga to support the Mercedes workers. Andrew is the team lead in the paint shop at VW.

“I’ve got to say, when y’all win, I’m going to be optimistic. When y’all win, you’re going to be part of something like Chattanooga. You’re going to be at the birth of a union. Everything in the contract is up for grabs. That’s an exciting time,” Kristina said.

“Because our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did this years and years and years ago. And now we are actually doing it for the first time,” Andrew added.

11:35 a.m. More focus from outside the U.S.

10:48 a.m. The union push gets support from workers outside the U.S.

10:13 a.m.:

9:45 a.m. Voting has ended. The count is expected to begin soon.

Original article continues below:

The automaker has previously said it looks forward “to participating in the election process to ensure every Team Member has a chance to cast their own secret-ballot vote, as well as having access to the information necessary to make an informed choice.”

Mercedes didn’t allow media access to the Vance plant on Friday. Company spokeswoman Felyicia Jerald cited “space limitations in the area where the vote will be tallied” in an email to AL.com.

‘Alabama is not Michigan’

The focus on Alabama is the current wave of UAW’s $40 million push in organizing labor unions at auto plants across the South.

Union organizers and workers view a successful vote as a ripple effect that would both improve working conditions at the plant and sustain the region’s growing push toward more unionized workplaces.

The region – and, in particular, deep South states like Alabama – have historically had a reputation for stronger resistance to unionization.

Wafa Orman, associate dean at the University of Alabama at Huntsville’s College of Business, pointed out that one strategy in Alabama over the years has been for employers to shut down already-unionized or potentially unionizing workplaces, and then sometimes reopen with non-union workers in a different location.

“It does appear that the governor and perhaps some other businesses are nervous that if wages and the cost of employment rises enough in Alabama, that will ruin the advantage that Alabama has currently over other states and employers to come here,” she said. “They’re concerned about that advantage that we have not being quite as large as it is right now.”

Alabama is one of 27 “right-to-work” states, which means that employees can join a unionized workplace without automatically joining the union or having to pay dues for representation. The state reported 156,000 union members in 2023, which made up 7.5% of the workforce, below the national rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But those same numbers point to an interesting trend starting in 2021: as Alabama’s unionized workforce grew from 5.9%, the national rate started dipping. In the Southeast, Alabama has climbed to the second highest share of union members, behind Kentucky’s 8.8%.

Opponents, including Alabama’s government leaders, see a unionized workplace like the auto plant as a threat to jobs, company profits and the state’s ability to recruit more businesses. Gov. Kay Ivey called UAW “corrupt, shifty and a dangerous leech” and a “looming threat” to Alabama’s economy.

Earlier this week, Ivey also signed legislation that allows the state to withhold economic incentives from companies that voluntarily recognize unions or don’t hold secret ballots in union elections.

While this won’t impact the current election, any companies that violate these provisions would have to repay its incentives starting Jan. 1, 2025.

“Alabama is not Michigan,” Ivey said on Monday. “Huntsville … Tuscaloosa … they’re not Detroit. We want to ensure that Alabama values, not Detroit values, continue to define the future of this great state.”

‘The Alabama discount’

Mercedes first opened the Vance plant in 1993, after scoring a $253 million economic incentive package from the state.

It was the first auto plant to locate in the state and has powered Alabama’s ascent to becoming the No. 1 automotive exporting state in the U.S.

Haeden Wright, a senior organizer for Jobs to Move America who lives near Vance and has worked on the campaign, said she doesn’t think Mercedes workers reap the benefits that the company has.

“They’re taking state money, but the workers aren’t really getting to take advantage of that,” she said.

“People shouldn’t be expected to be treated worse and paid less than people doing the same jobs in other parts of the country. The Alabama discount that’s been given to companies at the expense of actual Alabama working class people has to change.”

This push by UAW is unique because of how the union “reorganized its organizing” from a largely top-down approach to more active, direct work, said Stephen Silvia, author of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble” and politics and economics professor at American University.

The campaign originated with Mercedes workers themselves, who then approached UAW asking for their support with organizing, workers and advocates have said.

About 70% of the employees signed union authorization cards by April after UAW launched the card drive late last year.

That supermajority is what UAW views as the magic number to request an election. Under federal law, workers can request unionization if 30% of workers sign the cards.

Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board is investigating six charges filed against Mercedes at its Vance plant.

The charges allege that the plant surveilled employees, disciplined them for discussing unionization at work, stopped them from distributing union materials, discharged union supporters, forced employees to attend captive audience meetings and made statements suggesting that any activity was futile. Mercedes has denied the claims have merit.

Additionally, the NLRB is investigating three charges filed against Hyundai for alleged actions at its Montgomery plant, where a union campaign is also underway. Those charges allege that the company fired an employee, confiscated, and prohibited distribution of union materials, and intimidated union supporters, all of which Hyundai has denied.

William Thornton contributed to this report.