United Auto Workers (UAW) members and supporters on the picket line outside the ZF Chassis Systems plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S., Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
Andi Ryż | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizational vote on Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to call a up-to-date election.
Among more than a dozen claims, the Detroit union alleges that the German automaker fired four pro-union workers, forced them to attend anti-union meetings and made it complex for workers to speak out on behalf of the union.
According to the NLRB, which oversaw the elections, union organizing at the Alabama plant was unsuccessful, with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers who cast ballots against the UAW. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz employees took part in the elections.
“All these workers have ever wanted is a fair chance to have a voice on work and to have a say in their working conditions,” the UAW said in a statement. “And that’s what we’re asking for here. Let’s hold a vote for Mercedes in Alabama, where the company is not allowed to fire people, intimidate people, or break the law and its own corporate codes, and let the employees decide.”
The National Labor Relations Board confirmed Friday afternoon that its Atlanta-based office had received UAW concerns about the election. Friday was the last day the union could object and contest the election.
In a statement Friday, Mercedes-Benz said company officials “have worked with the NLRB to comply with its guidance and we will continue to do so” during the objection process. The automaker expressed its “honest hope that the UAW will respect our team members’ decision.”
The NLRB said its regional director would review UAW allegations of unfair elections. If it finds that the objections raise material and material issues of fact that can best be resolved by a hearing, it will order a hearing. If, after the hearing, it finds that the employer’s conduct influenced the election, it may order a up-to-date election.
The agency also confirmed that it is reviewing and investigating unfair labor practice allegations brought by the UAW against automakers, including six unfair labor practice allegations made against Mercedes-Benz since March.
After the results were announced, the President of the UAW Shawn Fain accused the company of waging an anti-union campaign that included “blatant illegal conduct,” but declined to discuss the union’s potential plans to object to its results.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during a webcast providing an update to union members on negotiations with Detroit automakers, October 6, 2023.
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On May 17, Fain said the union would continue to present its allegations against Mercedes-Benz, which accuses Mercedes-Benz of “disciplining employees for discussing unionism at work, prohibiting the distribution of union materials and paraphernalia, employees being subjected to surveillance, dismissing supporters from the union, forcing employees to attend public meetings and made statements suggesting that union activity is futile,” the NLRB previously said.
The results in Alabama were a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after it won an organizing campaign for some 4,330 workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee.
The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to pose a greater challenge for the union than the vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union had already established a presence after two failed organizing drives over the past decade and where it faced less opposition from the automaker.
