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By Nora Eckert
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) -The United Auto Staff has made historical past by successful its first unionization vote at an auto manufacturing unit within the U.S. South. Now it must show the success wasn’t a fluke by pulling off a second victory at a Mercedes plant in Alabama subsequent month.
UAW representatives on the VW plant additionally should present their mettle by negotiating a contract that offers employees what they’ve fought for – higher advantages, improved security on the job and a larger work-life steadiness.
The Volkswagen (ETR:) landslide win in Tennessee is anticipated to supply essential momentum to UAW President Shawn Fain’s $40 million marketing campaign to increase the union exterior Detroit to the U.S. South and West, specializing in 13 non-union auto firms, together with Toyota (NYSE:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:).
Fain, a scrappy chief who reveled in final yr’s combat with Detroit firms that received double-digit raises and cost-of-living changes, instructed a celebration of VW employees that the union would carry the combat on to Mercedes. “Let’s win extra for the working class throughout this nation,” he mentioned.
The Mercedes plant vote, scheduled for mid-Could, is anticipated to be a more durable combat than at VW, which took a impartial place within the vote.
Mercedes has mentioned it respects employees’ proper to arrange and needs them to make an knowledgeable choice. However in a letter to workers in January, it mentioned that the union organizers “can not assure you something” and that some employees had mentioned no to unionization due to Mercedes’ aggressive pay and advantages.”Mercedes is operating a way more aggressive anti-union marketing campaign than Volkswagen throughout the plant,” mentioned John Logan, labor professor at San Francisco State College.
However he added that the massive VW victory that noticed 73% of eligible employees vote in favor will present important momentum for organizing efforts at different crops within the South.
“This can give them an enormous enhance for the Mercedes vote, and in the event that they win that one, too, I would not be stunned to see elections at Hyundai (OTC:), Honda (NYSE:) and Toyota over the subsequent a number of months,” he mentioned.
The UAW says a “supermajority” of the roughly 5,200 eligible employees on the Mercedes meeting plant in Vance, Alabama, and a close-by battery plant in Woodstock help it. UAW coverage is to push for a vote as soon as 70% of employees have signed union playing cards.
A lot could rely on economics and perceptions about job safety. Within the historically anti-union South the place the UAW has misplaced a number of fights previously, six Republican governors have flatly opposed the union’s present marketing campaign, describing it as risking job safety since automakers face increased labor prices.
Previous to final autumn’s UAW labor talks with the Detroit Three automakers, Ford (NYSE:) officers mentioned their U.S. labor prices had been $64 an hour, in contrast with an estimated $55 for overseas automakers and $45-$50 for electrical automobile chief Tesla.
Staff at two different crops within the U.S. South – a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Toyota elements manufacturing unit in Missouri – have additionally launched organizing campaigns, with 30% of workers signing playing cards saying they help the UAW.
Staff on the VW plant say they’ll kick off conferences on Sunday to strategize on contract negotiations.
“The actual combat is getting your fair proportion,” Fain instructed VW employees Friday evening.
VW employee Jeremy Bowman, who hopes to be on the plant’s organizing committee, agreed. “The combat is simply beginning,” he mentioned.
