United Auto Workers (UAW) members and supporters are on the picket line outside the ZF Chassis Systems plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
Andy Rice | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote Mercedes Benz Alabama workers voted against union representation and asked federal officials to order new elections.
In more than a dozen complaints, the Detroit union accused the German automaker of firing four pro-union workers, forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings and interfering with workers’ ability to defend the union.
Union organizing at the Alabama plant failed, with 56 percent of the vote, or 2,642 workers, voting against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversees the election. More than 90 percent of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz employees participated in the election.
“All these workers want is to have a voice on the job and have a say in their working conditions,” the UAW said in a statement. “That’s what we’re asking for here. Let’s be in Allah Mercedes in Bama voted that the company does not allow firing people, does not allow intimidation of people, does not allow violations of the law and its own corporate code of conduct, and lets workers decide.
The National Labor Relations Board confirmed Friday afternoon that its Atlanta office received objections to the election from the United Auto Workers union. Friday is the last day unions can raise objections and challenge the election.
Mercedes-Benz said in a statement Friday that company officials “cooperate with the NLRB to comply with its guidance and we will continue to do so” through the objection process. The automaker said it “sincerely hopes that the United Auto Workers will respect the decision of our team members.”
The NLRB said its regional directors will review the UAW’s claims of unfair elections. If she finds that the objection raises substantial factual issues that are best resolved at a hearing, she will order a hearing. If after the hearing she finds that the employer’s actions affected the election, she can order a new election.
The agency also reconfirmed that it is processing and investigating UAW unfair labor practice charges against automakers, including six unfair labor practice charges against Mercedes-Benz since March.
After the results were announced, UAW President Shawn Fain accused the company of an anti-union campaign that included “serious illegal conduct,” but he declined to discuss the union’s potential plans to fight the results.
On October 6, 2023, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain updated union members on the status of negotiations with the Detroit automakers during an online broadcast.
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Fein said on May 17 that the union would move forward with charges against Mercedes-Benz that it “disciplines employees who discuss unionization at work and prohibits the distribution of union materials and paraphernalia.” , spying on employees, firing unions,” the NLRB previously said: “They attacked supporters, forced employees to attend exclusive audience meetings, and issued statements suggesting that union activity was futile.
The results in Alabama are a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts, which came a month after it won an organizing drive among some 4,330 Volkswagen plant workers in Tennessee.
The Mercedes-Benz vote is expected to be more challenging for the union than the vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union has established a presence after two failed organizing drives in the past decade and is under pressure from automakers There was less opposition from manufacturers.
