DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union is difficult the consequence of last week’s organizing vote. Mercedes Benz staff in Alabama where staff voted against union representation and calls on federal authorities to order latest elections.
Among other things, the Detroit union claims that the German automaker fired 4 pro-union employees, forced them to attend anti-union meetings and prevented them from supporting the union.
Unionization efforts on the Alabama plant failed when 56% of the vote, or 2,642 staff, voted against the UAW, in accordance with the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz staff participated within the election.
“All these workers have ever wanted was a fair chance to have a voice in the workplace and a say in their working conditions,” the UAW said in a press release. “And that's what we're asking for here. Let's hold a vote at Mercedes in Alabama where the company can't fire people, can't intimidate people, can't break the law or its own company code, and let the workers decide.”
The National Labor Relations Board confirmed Friday afternoon that its Atlanta office had received the UAW's objections to the election. Friday was the last day for the union to file objections and contest the election.
Mercedes-Benz said in a press release Friday that management “has worked with the NLRB to comply with its guidelines and will continue to do so” throughout the appeal process. The automaker said it “sincerely hopes the UAW will respect our team members' decision.”
The NLRB said its regional director will review the UAW's allegations of an unfair election. If she finds that the objections raise material and substantial factual issues which might be best resolved by a hearing, she is going to order a hearing. If, after the hearing, she finds that the employer's conduct influenced the election, she may order a brand new election.
The agency also confirmed that it’s processing and investigating unfair labor practice allegations made by the UAW against automakers, including six unfair labor practice allegations against Mercedes-Benz since March.
After the outcomes were announced, the UAW President said Shawn Fain accused the corporate of conducting an anti-union campaign that also involved “egregious illegal behavior,” but declined to comment on possible union plans to appeal the outcomes.
Fain said on May 17 that the union would proceed to pursue its lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz, which alleges that Mercedes-Benz “disciplined employees for discussing union formation in the workplace, 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 ends in Alabama were a setback for the UAW's union organizing efforts, a month after it won a union campaign by about 4,330 staff on the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee.
The vote at Mercedes-Benz is more likely to pose a greater challenge for the union than the vote on the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the union already had a longtime presence after two failed union campaigns over the past decade and where it faced less resistance from the automaker.
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