According to foreign media reports, workers at Mercedes-Benz’s Vance plant in Alabama submitted a petition to the American Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking for an election to join the United Auto Workers (UAW).
Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama plant is the second plant to submit a union election application to NLRB in recent weeks.
Reuters previously reported that workers at Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama plant would submit an election application to NLRB as soon as this week.
NLRB said it planned to hold a hearing on April 15 unless the parties concerned agreed on the timing of the election.
UAW said “the vast majority” of the 5200 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers at the plant and at the nearby Woodstock, Alabama plant had signed registration cards for union membership.
UAW hopes to vote in early May this year.
A spokesman for Mercedes-Benz said that the company respects the right of employees to “choose whether to unionize” and we look forward to participating in the election process to ensure that “workers have access to information so that they can make informed choices”.
A few months ago, UAW launched a campaign against more than a dozen non-union carmakers, including foreign companies such as Hyundai and Toyota, as well as electric carmakers such as Tesla and Rivian, in an attempt to attract employees from these companies to join unions.
After signing record new contracts with the Detroit automakers GM, Ford and Stellantis, UAW chairman Shawn Fain promised to meet the union’s failed goal of attracting new automakers to join the union over the past few decades.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, workers at the Volkswagen plant first petitioned UAW to organize a vote, which is expected to be completed by April 19th.
UAW voted at the factory twice, but both attempts failed, with UAW narrowly failing to win a majority in 2014 and 2019, respectively.
The American plant owned by Japanese carmaker Nissan also tried to vote, but failed.
In a filing with federal regulators, UAW union members claimed that some automakers were retaliating against workers or hindering their attempts to unionize.
On April 3, UAW accused Mercedes-Benz of violating a new German law on global supply chain practices, which forbids German companies from ignoring workers’ right to form trade unions.
Mercedes-Benz responded to some allegations from the union, saying they were inaccurate.
Mercedes-Benz also said it recognized employees’ right to form a union.
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