Dive Brief:
- Over half the hourly workers at the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have signed union authorization cards, according to a United Auto Workers press release Tuesday.
- The news comes after some Mercedes-Benz employees announced their campaign to establish a union at the plant in January.
- It’s the second non-union automotive plant in the U.S. to announce majority support to form a union since the UAW won major concessions from the Big Three automakers last fall, according to the UAW.
Dive Insight:
The organizing efforts at Mercedes-Benz’s assembly plant in Alabama are part of a larger UAW effort to unionize almost 150,000 non-union autoworkers at 13 companies.
Several automakers — including Hyundai, which has an assembly plant in Vance, Alabama — have agreed to raise wages for autoworkers in the U.S. in recent months as non-union autoworkers push for better compensation and working conditions.
However, the nationwide union drive has picked up steam recently. Over 30% of autoworkers at Hyundai Motor Group’s assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama, and over half of the employees at Volkswagen Group’s assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have signed union cards.
In a statement, the UAW said autoworkers at the Alabama plant want notable wage increases, the end of wage tiers and changes to the use of temporary workers. UAW-represented autoworkers at the Big Three made similar demands ahead of last fall’s contentious labor negotiations and won major concessions from General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis.
Autoworkers in Alabama saw their real wages decline 11%, or $7,700, from 2002 to 2019, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Alabama Arise, a nonprofit focused on alleviating poverty. Other manufacturing jobs in the state, meanwhile, saw real wages rise 12%, or $6,750, over the same period.
Last month, a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson told Automotive Dive that the automaker would not interfere in efforts to unionize its assembly plant in Vance, Alabama. Other automakers, meanwhile, have been accused of engaging in union-busting activities.
The Alabama plant employs 6,100 people and assembles six models, including the GLE, GLS, GLE Coupe, Mercedes-Maybach GLS, EQE SUV and EQS SUV.
