A week after losing a close election at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Alabama, the United Automobile Workers on Friday asked federal officials to order a new vote, saying the German automaker violated labor laws to suppress support for the labor union.
Mercedes-Benz waged a “relentless anti-union campaign” marked by “rampant lawlessness,” the UAW said in a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board. Among other things, the union said, Mercedes fired four employees who supported the union, prevented pro-union employees from campaigning and forced employees to watch anti-union videos.
Workers at Mercedes factories outside Tuscaloosa, which make sport utility vehicles and battery packs, voted 56 percent to 44 percent against joining the union. But the labor board can order a new election if, after a hearing, a regional director determines that inappropriate conduct by an employer affected the vote, a board spokeswoman said.
Mercedes denied using improper methods to defeat the union campaign. Most workers “indicated that they are not interested in being represented by the UAW,” the company said in a statement Friday.
“Throughout the election, we worked with the NLRB to comply with their guidance and will continue to do so,” Mercedes said.
The Alabama result interrupted a series of UAW victories in the South, including persuading a large majority of workers at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to vote to join the union and secure substantial wage increases. in a new contract with Daimler. Truck in North Carolina.
Organizing workers in Southern states, which have long been hostile to unions, is a high priority for the UAW. The region is attracting a large share of the billions of dollars that companies are investing in battery and electric car factories.
Likewise, elected leaders in the South, such as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, have worked to keep unions out, seeing them as a threat to their ability to attract more factories and jobs.
