What’s at stake in the union election at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama

A high-stakes union election is underway at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the only plant for the luxury automaker in North America.

A high-stakes union election is underway at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the only plant for the luxury automaker in North America. The fallout will be significant whether the workers at Mercedes-Benz vote to join the United Auto Workers union or not. The UAW is hoping to carry its strong momentum right now, as its decision to use a “stand up strike” strategy hitting the Big Three automakers all at once brought unprecedented attention and record contracts for workers. And last month, it won a union election at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, its first victory in three attempts to organize the factory. Winning the Alabama vote would mean the UAW’s biggest push to grow its membership in decades will keep going. The UAW watched for decades as non-unionized factories owned by companies from Kia to Toyota to Tesla to Rivian popped up across the country, especially in the southern United States. But under relatively new UAW president Shawn Fain, the strategy has changed. In an interview with Car and Driver, Fain said the profit margins for the Japanese, Korean and German automakers were “obscenely more gross than they were at the Big Three, and yet their workers get less.” “I truly believe we’re going to see a huge shift this year. I think we’re gonna win in the South,” he said in the interview.