Vote will be a key referendum on whether the United Auto Workers can maintain momentum in the historically anti-union South.
VANCE, Alabama — The outcome of a vote on Friday by workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama will be a key referendum on whether the United Auto Workers can maintain momentum in the historically anti-union South.
VW workers twice voted against the UAW before last month's win, and Nissan workers at a plant in Mississippi rejected the UAW by a wide margin in 2017. In 2021, workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in Alabama voted against forming a union by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The company made its feelings clear in the run-up. Signs urging workers to vote"no" were hung around the plant, and the company hired anti-union firms to speak with workers about the potential risks of joining the UAW, according to workers, as well as photos and audio reviewed by Reuters.
Workers on both sides expect this election to be close. Mercedes employee Kay Finklea, who is pro-UAW, said the company's messaging, including a recent anti-union push with a local pastor, has swayed some to vote"no." HARD TO IGNORE The vote is hard to ignore for Alabamans who live between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa; pro-UAW signs poke out of forests on the sides of Interstate 20 with portraits of longtime Mercedes workers alongside the UAW emblem.
The Mercedes and Volkswagen U.S. factories were the first two to reach a supermajority of workers signing cards supporting the union, a threshold at which the group calls for an election. The UAW has not yet said any other plants have reached that level.
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