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By Nora Eckert
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers made history by winning its first unionization vote at an auto plant in the southern United States. Now they must prove that the success was no fluke by taking a second victory at a Mercedes plant in Alabama next month.
UAW representatives at the VW plant will also have to prove their mettle by negotiating a contract that gives workers what they’ve fought for: better benefits, greater job security and greater work-life balance.
Volkswagen’s (ETR:) landslide victory in Tennessee is expected to give crucial momentum to UAW President Shawn Fain’s $40 million campaign to expand the union outside Detroit to the South and West, focusing on 13 non-union automotive companies, including Toyota (NYSE:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:).
Fain, a scrappy leader who reveled in last year’s fight with Detroit companies getting double-digit raises and cost-of-living adjustments, told a group of VW workers that the union would take the fight even to Mercedes. “Let’s win more for the working class across this nation,” he said.
The vote on the Mercedes plant, scheduled for mid-May, is expected to be a tougher battle than that of VW, which took a neutral position in the vote.
Mercedes said it respects workers’ right to organize and wants them to make an informed decision. But in a letter to employees in January, it said union organizers “cannot guarantee you anything” and that some workers had said no to unionization because of Mercedes’ competitive pay and benefits. campaign versus Volkswagen inside the plant,” said John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University.
But he added that VW’s big victory, which saw 73% of eligible workers vote in favor, will provide significant momentum for organizing efforts at other plants in the South.
“This will give them a huge boost to the Mercedes vote, and if they win that too, I wouldn’t be surprised to see elections at Hyundai (OTC:), Honda (NYSE:) and Toyota in the coming months,” he said.
The UAW says a “supermajority” of the approximately 5,200 eligible workers at the Mercedes assembly plant in Vance, Alabama, and a nearby battery plant in Woodstock, support it. The UAW’s policy is to push for a vote once 70% of workers have signed union cards.
Much may depend on economics and perceptions of job security. In the traditionally anti-union South, where the UAW has lost several battles in the past, six Republican governors have adamantly opposed the union’s current campaign, describing it as a job security risk as automakers face higher labor costs .
Before last fall’s UAW union talks with the three Detroit automakers, Ford (NYSE:) officials said their U.S. labor costs were $64 an hour, compared to an estimate of 55 dollars for foreign automakers and 45-50 dollars for electric vehicle leader Tesla.
Workers at two other plants in the southern United States – a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Toyota parts plant in Missouri – also launched organizing campaigns, with 30% of employees signing cards saying they support the UAW.
Workers at the VW plant say they will begin meetings on Sunday to strategize contract negotiations.
“The real fight is getting your fair share,” Fain told VW workers Friday night.
VW worker Jeremy Bowman, who hopes to serve on the plant’s organizing committee, agrees. “The fight has just begun,” he said.