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UAW organizing campaign hits Alabama speed bump

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UAW organizing campaign hits Alabama speed bump

The United Auto Workers was dealt a setback in its national organizing campaign Friday after the majority of workers at Alabama’s Mercedes-Benz complex voted against joining the Detroit union this week.

The vote count was 2,642 against union representation and 2,045 for, or 56% no, according to results posted by the National Labor Relations Board following a five-day election that started Monday and ended Friday morning.

The loss at the luxury German auto plant comes a month after workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted for UAW representation. The union’s organizing momentum is likely to take a hit just ahead of a presidential election that could have big implications for organized labor if someone is elected other than pro-union President Joe Biden. 

“It is not a fatal setback,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University. “The UAW will have to take measure of the situation and analyze the reasons why they were turned back at the Alabama plants. But I think that it will stiffen, rather than weaken, their resolve to go forward. And they will have to be more savvy about the approach that they take.”

Even after the UAW’s victory in Tennessee, experts didn’t expect a guaranteed win at the Alabama complex owned by Daimler AG since Mercedes, business leaders and politicians sought to discourage support for the UAW in one of the nation’s most conservative states. UAW President Shawn Fain acknowledged the possibility of a defeat in an interview earlier this month with The Detroit News.

“I don’t view it as a setback,” Fain said. “I know what these workers are put under. That’s just another indicator, another issue with this nation of how poorly the laws are structured for working-class people. All the laws made favor business. The courts are structured to favor business over people.”

Fain, during a Friday press conference, said the loss was “obviously not the result we wanted. But these courageous, greatest workers reached out to us because they wanted justice. They led this fight. And that’s what this is all about. What happens next is up to them.”

As far as what this means for the UAW’s national $40 million organizing campaign at auto and battery plants it launched after reaching record contracts with the Detroit Three last fall, Fain said the union will “keep doing what we’re doing.”

“We’re gonna carry on, keep on fighting,” he said. “This is about workers. It’s about worker justice.”

In a statement after the election results were released, Mercedes-Benz said: “We look forward to continuing to work directly with our Team Members to ensure MBUSI is not only their employer of choice, but a place they would recommend to friends and family.” 

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican who had vocally opposed the union’s organizing efforts in recent weeks, issued a celebratory statement shortly after the results were posted.

“The workers in Vance have spoken, and they have spoken clearly,” Ivey said. “Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW. We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election. I am proud Alabama is home to some of the greatest automakers in the world, and I am grateful to these companies who provide good pay, benefits and opportunities to many men and women across our state.

“As I have said,” she added, “automotive manufacturing is one of Alabama’s crown jewel industries and number one in the country, and we are committed to keeping it that way.”

What happened at Mercedes

It’s possible the union moved too quickly to call for a vote before ensuring they had a solid base of support, Wayne State’s Masters said. The union had reported that a supermajority of workers at Mercedes signed authorization cards ahead of the vote.

But Masters noted that UAW officials never stated exactly what percentage had signed on, which may have suggested they were unsure if all the signatures would actually translate into yes votes.

He noted Mercedes management was also much more aggressive in opposing the union than Volkswagen was a few weeks earlier in the union’s successful drive in Tennessee.

Mercedes also took steps to allay some worker concerns, Masters said, even changing the top leadership of the plant in the weeks leading up the vote. Mercedes named Federico Kochlowski, the new president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International effective May 1. Kochlowski replaced Michael Goebel, who had served in the role since 2019.

Fain previously mentioned the company’s “captive audience” meetings and reports of intimidation, which the union included in unfair labor practice allegations filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The UAW’s loss will be sign to other automakers that “savvy employer resistance may pay off,” Masters said.

Stephen Silvia, an American University professor who wrote a book on the UAW’s organizing efforts in the South, said momentum seemed to slip away from the union in the final days before votes were counted.

“I could feel it coming,” said Silvia, who was on the ground at the plant this week, and watched Fain’s speech on Friday.

“A no-holds-barred anti-union campaign is an effective thing, and that’s what Mercedes did,” said the professor, who noted that the automaker’s switch-out of the plant leader appeared especially effective.

Like a baseball team firing a manager to appease disgruntled players and fans, the move was a signal to workers that the company would work to fix some of their grievances. Silvia said many workers bought it.

But that doesn’t mean the UAW should be overly discouraged, he added. Similar union campaigns in the South have often gone down by roughly 2-to-1 margins. The Mercedes vote, the first time an election had been held at the plant, saw about 44% of workers vote in favor of joining the UAW.

“This plant is in a better position for the UAW to try again sometime down the road,” he said.

The next focus for the union will be at another Alabama plant, which builds Hyundai Motor Co. vehicles in Montgomery. More than 30% of workers there have signed union cards.

The UAW, in early March, also reached the 30% threshold at a Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary plant in Troy, Missouri. That plant produces thousands of cylinder heads daily for Toyota engines produced in North America, according to the company’s website.

‘We’re not giving up’

Jay White, lead of the MBUSI Workers’ Information Committee campaigning against the UAW, said “Thank God” when The News informed him of the vote’s outcome.

“I don’t know that I would call it an achievement from that perspective,” he said. “I think it’s a team win for all the employees. It’s hard to say what the deciding factor would have been for a lot of people but I’m sure politics played a part.”

Kirk Garner, a 26-year Mercedes employee who has worked on unionizing the plant since 2000, believes the company’s campaign helped flip yes votes to no votes.

“We couldn’t gauge what they might have flipped,” he said. “With all the mandatory captive audience videos and meetings that flipped some people, and then the persuaders flipped some people, and then maybe changing the CEO might have flipped a few people.”

The team of UAW organizers will take the summer off and then start campaigning in the fall, Garner said: “We’re not giving up. We can keep doing this until we get it.”

khall@detroitnews.com

@bykaleahall

lramseth@detroitnews.com

@lramseth

Staff Writer Breana Noble contributed.

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