After Friday's setbacks at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama, efforts by the United Auto Workers to organize other auto plants in the South are likely to slow and may make progress difficult.
About 56% of Mercedes workers rejected the UAW in a vote after the union scored two big victories this year. Last April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted to join a union, the first large-scale non-union auto plant in the South. A few weeks later, the union negotiated a new contract that significantly improved wages and benefits for its members at several North Carolina plants owned by Daimler Truck.
“The loss at Mercedes is not the death of the union,” said Arthur Whitten, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s Graduate School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “This means they have less confidence to go to the next factory. The UAW is in it for the long haul. “I don’t think we can stop just because we lost here.”
Since its founding in 1935, the UAW has almost exclusively represented workers employed by three Michigan-based automakers: General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler (now part of Stellantis). And there have been long efforts to make progress at plants owned by foreign manufacturers, especially in Southern states where anti-union sentiment runs deep.
Workers at a Volkswagen plant recently voted against UAW representation twice by narrow margins before the union won there. Efforts to organize one of Mercedes' factories a decade ago failed to build enough support for an election.
Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that widespread union organizing efforts have rarely gone smoothly. In the 1930s, the UAW won recognition at GM and Chrysler, but struggled at Ford, where it continued to hire non-union workers for several years.
“I have no doubt that they will continue to organize and eventually try to hold another vote,” he said.
In past efforts in the South, the union was hampered by a negative image, which may also have played a role in the UAW's loss at Mercedes. Over the years, Michigan's three automakers have cut jobs and closed plants, in part because of rigid and expensive labor contracts. The union has also been hit by a corruption scandal that has sent several former high-ranking officials to prison, including two former UAW presidents.
Alabama business leaders mounted an opposition campaign based in part on claims that the UAW was responsible for Detroit's decline. In a January opinion essay published in The Alabama Daily News, Business Council of Alabama President Helena Duncan said the state would suffer the same fate if workers voted for unions. .
“Much of the decline that exists in today’s ‘Motor City’ stems from the indefensible demands placed on auto manufacturers by the UAW. This is an unwise move that will send countless jobs to right-to-work states like ours and cripple our once great state. It’s a big city,” Mr. Duncan wrote.
A year ago, the union elected a new president, Shawn Fain, who, unconcerned by the corruption scandal, pledged to take a more aggressive approach to contract negotiations. Then last fall, after a strike that lasted about 40 days, the union won significant wages and benefits in negotiations with Detroit automakers. Hundreds of Southern auto workers began asking for help organizing non-union plants. The UAW announced it will spend $40 million on drive configuration over the next two years.
“I’m not scared at all,” Mr. Payne said Friday in Alabama after the union lost the Mercedes vote. “I believe workers want unions and they want justice. “We will continue to do what we can.”
In a statement, Mercedes emphasized its direct relationship with employees and said the company looked forward to being “not only an employer of choice for our employees, but also a place they would recommend to their friends and family.”
The union has signaled that it expects to focus its organizing efforts on another Alabama plant: the Hyundai plant in Montgomery. But organizing that plant would probably be much more difficult than campaigning at a Mercedes plant, said Eric Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the auto industry.
The UAW is allied with Volkswagen and Mercedes. Trade unions play a strong role in Germany, where both companies are headquartered. German law requires worker representatives to hold half the seats on a company's supervisory board, the same as on American boards.
Both Volkswagen and Mercedes have groups called works councils where managers and employees discuss and negotiate workplace issues and production plans. While driving through the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, the UAW had the support of the company's works council and IG Metall, a powerful union representing all German auto workers.
The UAW won't get that kind of support from Hyundai's Montgomery plant, Gordon said. “In general, Korean car companies have a more hostile relationship with unions than their German counterparts,” he said. “Korean companies are not accustomed to sitting in a conference room with unions.”
Weeks after the UAW won pay and benefit increases from three Michigan-based automakers last year, Hyundai announced it would significantly raise wages for its workers over the next four years. This is widely seen as an attempt to undermine worker interest. Join the UAW
“The decision to represent the union is up to our team members,” Hyundai Motor Company said in a statement.
The Montgomery plant produces two popular sport utility vehicles, the Tucson and Santa Fe, and employs approximately 4,000 people. An initial UAW push to organize the plant in 2016 was halted without a vote.
Last fall, the union threatened to attack plants owned by 10 foreign-owned automakers, including Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda and Volvo, as well as another automaker owned by Texas-based Tesla. He said he had a plan. , Lucid and Rivian, two small electric vehicle startups based in California.
These foreign and American factories owned by American companies employ about 150,000 workers in 13 states, the union said.
But in Alabama the UAW faced perhaps a more hostile environment than anywhere else. While campaigning in Mercedes, Gov. Kay Ivey spoke out against unions and led a group of six Southern governors. Southern governors have all issued letters suggesting that unionization could force automakers to move jobs out of their states. A senior Alabama politician described the UAW as a “leech.”
Mercedes called in Nick Saban, the former University of Alabama football coach, to talk to workers to convince them to vote against the UAW.
The union is traditionally seen as a Northern institution and is often associated with the civil rights movement, which alienates many people in Alabama, Mr. Gordon said. “It’s a very difficult place for the UAW,” he said.
This animosity could make it difficult for the UAW to negotiate a contract that would secure membership raises and other benefits, even if it wins the unionization vote. Anti-union lawmakers may pressure employers not to make major concessions in negotiations.
Mr. Fain and the UAW have argued that unions are the best way for workers to demand higher wages when automakers enjoy strong sales and profits in North America.
Public support for unions was stronger than ever, including in the South. This year, 600 workers at an electric bus plant in Alabama voted to join the Communications Workers of America union. A week ago, they negotiated a new contract that provides increased pay and enhanced benefits.
The UAW and other unions have also received support from President Biden. Last fall, we joined striking auto workers on picket lines in Michigan. The union supported Mr. Biden in this year's election.
But the close relationship with the president could hurt the UAW, with conservative workers in southern states preferring Biden's opponent, former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Payne and Mr. Trump have often criticized each other, but polls show a significant majority of unionized households support the former president.