Mercedes-Benz workers to vote on UAW membership in May

Workers at the Mercedes Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, will vote between May 13 and 17 on whether to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced Thursday. A vote to organize workers at the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa would be a major victory for the UAW, which is again trying to bring workers from the auto industry into its fold.

The election follows months of organizing efforts at several non-union companies owned by foreign companies such as Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor.

BACKGROUND Earlier this month, Mercedes factory workers filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold an election to join the ‘UAW.

The UAW’s record contracts with Detroit’s three automakers — General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company — have fueled calls for unionization by non-union automakers.

This week, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will vote on whether to join the union. UAW organizers have lost votes at the plant twice, missing a majority in 2014 and 2019. The UAW said earlier this month that 5,200 eligible workers at Mercedes at the plant and a nearby plant in Woodstock, Alabama, signed union membership cards. employees.

The NLRB will count the votes beginning at 10:45 a.m. ET on May 17, and results are expected the same day.