NEW YORK — A majority of workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, are calling for a vote to join the United Auto Workers union, which aims to take over non-union factories across the country close.
According to a Friday announcement from the UAW, Mercedes employees have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for the vote.
Their call for union elections comes just weeks after workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, set a date to vote for UAW representation.
The Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, had a total of approximately 6,100 employees at the end of 2023. More than 5,000 people are calling for a union vote, UAW said Friday.
“We are voting for safer jobs at Mercedes,” Moesha Chandler, a member of the Mercedes assembly team, said in a statement shared in the union’s announcement. “If you’re still in your twenties and your body is breaking down, that’s not right. By winning our union, we have the power to make work safer and more sustainable.”
No date has yet been set for the factory’s union vote, but the UAW said Mercedes workers hope to vote in early May.
In response to the workers’ petition, Mercedes-Benz US International said it “fully respects our team members’ choice to join or not join a union.” The company added that it plans to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to cast their own secret ballot and have access to “the information needed to make an informed choice” during the election process.
The UAW has accused Mercedes management of anti-union tactics in recent weeks. The union filed federal labor charges against the automaker last month for union fraud, as well as charges in a German court over labor violations earlier this week.
Employees at the Alabama plant calling for UAW representation first signed cards in February in support of joining the union.
The UAW announced its organizational campaign last fall after winning strong contracts from Detroit’s Big Three. The union said it would simultaneously target more than a dozen non-union auto factories, including those of Tesla, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Honda and others.
More than 10,000 non-union autoworkers have signed union cards in recent months, the UAW said Friday. In addition to the Mercedes and Volkswagen factories, the union pointed to public campaigns at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama and Toyota in Troy, Missouri.
