US: Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama remain union-free

The United Auto Workers (UAW) trade union failed in its attempt to unionize a majority of the approximately 5,100 workers at the two US Mercedes-Benz plants near Tuscaloosa in the southern state of Alabama.

Workers at an auto assembly plant and a battery plant in and around Vance, not far from Tuscaloosa, voted on Friday against joining the United Auto Workers, a setback in the union's drive to organize plants in the historically nonunion southern US.

In the poll, 56% voted against the union, according to tallies released by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which conducted the election. The final tally showed a vote of 2,642 to 2,045 against the union.

The board said both sides have five business days to file objections to the election. The union must wait a year before seeking another vote.

UAW vows to keep campaigning

In Alabama, UAW supporters faced opposition not only from Mercedes itself but also from state and local officials who warned of job losses and portrayed the campaign to unionize as a threat to the local economy.

"The workers in Vance have spoken, and they have spoken clearly!" Alabama's Republican Governor Kay Ivey wrote on X.

"Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW," said Ivey, who has fought unionization at Mercedes and at another plant operated by Hyundai.

UAW President Shawn Fain acknowledged disappointment in the outcome and slammed Mercedes for what he called "egregious and illegal behavior" during the campaign, but insisted the UAW would press on with additional campaigns in the South.

What does the defeat mean for the UAW?

The loss puts the brakes on the UAW's efforts to organize 150,000 workers at more than a dozen non-union auto plants, mostly in the South.

The vote at the two Mercedes plants comes a month after the UAW won a landmark victory at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW.

Until then, the UAW had had little success in recruiting at non-union auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less attracted to organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other states in the industrial Midwest.

The UAW recently got a boost from a week-long strike last fall at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis that won better working conditions and pay raises of about 25% for workers.

dh/sms (AP, dpa, Reuters)