[
DETROIT/WASHINGTON – Staff at a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing unit in Vance, Alabama, filed a petition with U.S. regulators to carry an election to affix the United Auto Staff, the union stated Friday.
The SUV plant is the second plant to file an election petition with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in current weeks. reuters It was beforehand reported that Mercedes employees in Alabama will file an election petition with the NLRB as quickly as this week.
The UAW stated the “supermajority” of greater than 5,000 eligible Mercedes employees on the plant signed playing cards to affix the union. The UAW hopes to vote by early Could.
The elections come after months of efforts by greater than a dozen non-union automakers owned by overseas firms like Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor, in addition to EV makers like Tesla and Rivian.
After securing report contracts for the Detroit Three — Common Motors, Ford and Stellantis — UAW President Shawn Fenn promised to perform a objective at which the labor group has repeatedly failed over the previous few a long time: unionizing its ranks. Welcoming a brand new automaker to the U.S.
The UAW's newest efforts come at a time when it has an ally within the White Home. President Joe Biden, who joined the UAW picket line final fall in Michigan — a key battleground on this fall's election — has supported UAW efforts to arrange non-union automakers.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, employees at a Volkswagen plant have been the primary to petition for a UAW vote, which is anticipated to be finalized by April 19. UAW organizers have twice misplaced votes at that plant, lacking the bulk in 2014 and 2019. There have additionally been unsuccessful makes an attempt at crops owned by Japanese automaker Nissan.
Union officers claimed in filings with federal regulators that some automakers are retaliating in opposition to employees or obstructing their efforts to arrange. Labor teams filed expenses on Wednesday in opposition to Mercedes for violating Germany's new regulation on world provide chain practices, which prevents German firms from ignoring employees' rights to type commerce unions.
The corporate responded to a number of the allegations of the union and stated that these are false. It additionally stated the corporate acknowledges the rights of its workers to arrange.