United Auto Workers (UAW) members and supporters picket outside the ZF Chassis Systems plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
Andi Rice | Bloomberg | fake images
DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week's organizing vote. Mercedes Benz workers in Alabama, where workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election.
Among a dozen claims, the Detroit union alleges that the German automaker fired four pro-union workers, forced workers to attend anti-union meetings and interfered with workers' ability to defend the union.
Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, voting against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which monitored the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the elections.
“All these workers ever wanted was a fair opportunity to have a voice at work and a voice in their working conditions,” the UAW said in a statement. “And that's what we're asking for here. Let's get a vote on Mercedes in Alabama, where the company is not allowed to fire people, is not allowed to intimidate people and is not allowed to violate the law and its own rights”. corporate code and let the workers decide.
The National Labor Relations Board confirmed Friday afternoon that its Atlanta-based office received the UAW's objections to the election. Friday was the last day the union could file objections and challenge the election.
Mercedes-Benz in a statement Friday said company officials “worked with the NLRB to comply with its guidelines and we will continue to do so” during the objection process. The automaker said it “sincerely hoped the UAW would respect our team members' decision.”
The NLRB said its regional director will review the UAW's allegations of an unfair election. If it believes that the objections raise substantial and material factual issues that could best be resolved by a hearing, it will order a hearing. If after the hearing you determine that the employer's conduct affected the election, you can order a new election.
The agency also reconfirmed that it is prosecuting and investigating unfair labor practice charges filed by the UAW 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 waging an anti-union campaign, including “egregious illegal behavior,” but declined to discuss the union's possible plans to challenge the results. .
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during an online broadcast updating union members on negotiations with Detroit automakers on October 6, 2023.
Screenshot
Fain said on May 17 that the union would continue to pursue its charges against Mercedes-Benz, which allege that Mercedes-Benz has “disciplined employees for discussing union organizing at work, prohibited the distribution of union materials and paraphernalia, surveilled employees, fired union supporters, forced employees to attend meetings with captive audiences, and made statements suggesting that union activity is futile,” the NLRB previously said.
The Alabama results were a blow to the UAW's organizing efforts a month after it won an organizing drive of about 4,330 workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee.
The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to be more challenging for the union than the vote at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union had already established a presence after two failed union campaigns in the last decade and where it faced less opposition over part of the car manufacturer. .
