Workers at Mercedes Benz in Vance, Alabama have voted against unionisation in a close vote that was preceeded by an anti union campaign by the German company who had vowed to remain neutral in the vote.
The result declared on Friday by the US National Labour Relations Board was close – with workers at the plant in Vance and a nearby battery facility voting 2,642 to 2,045 against the UAW, a 56% no vote.
Union recognition votes in the Southern USA in car manufacturing plants which have gone against unionisation have seen much wider rejections, so this result gives the UAW a good platform on which to build union membership and win another ballot when they choose to do so.
Although disappointed, reminding workers at the count the UAW president, Shawn Fain said that the recent vote to unionise at Volkswagen in Chattanooga came after two previous defeats.
The heaviest anti union activity at Vance came in the last two weeks, when Mercedes Benz used compulsory capitative audience meetings with employees arguing why they should vote against the union.
Also six state governors across the southern states waded in against the union and anti anti union workers were encouraged to persuade pro union workers to vote against union representation.
Although the UAW has five days to file complaints against the company the next steps remain unclear but the union said the $40 million campaign for union organisation at other automakers including Toyota, Hyundai and Tesla would continue.
Fain described the workers at Vance as ‘courageous’ and the action in joining the UAW which had seen the company forced to raise wages, end their two teir wage structure and get rid of a disinterested CEO.
He described the company as having been involved in “egregious illegal behaviour” resulting in the US government as well as the German government investigating the company in intimidating and harassing its own workforce.
A senior source at the UAW said that the German union IG Metall had been incredibly supportive as have unionised Mercedes plants around the world.