- Employees at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama will vote on joining the UAW next month.
- The union’s new contract with Daimler Truck includes a 25% wage increase over four years.
- The win will build momentum for the UAW’s broad ambitions to unionize more of the U.S. auto sector.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has secured a new labor contract with Daimler Truck at an assembly plant in Alabama and the result may encourage more workers at the nearby Mercedes factory to also vote in favor of joining the UAW.
Employees at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance, Alabama, and a nearby battery plant in Woodstock, will vote on being represented by the union in an election to be finalized on May 17. This election will come just a few weeks after workers at VW’s plant in Tennessee voted in favor of joining the union but it’s expected to be more difficult for the union to get support at the Mercedes plant.
Read: UAW Files Charges Against Mercedes For Alleged Anti-Union Campaign
On Friday, the UAW inked a new labor contract with Daimler Truck, which includes a 25% general wage increase over four years, a profit-sharing program, and cost-of-living adjustments. UAW president Shawn Fain said this result will pave the way for other hourly workers.
“Time’s up for companies that want workers to feel the pain while they take all the profit,” he said at a North Carolina rally on Saturday. “The clock has run out on corporate greed. Today belongs to the working class.”
According to labor professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Marick Masters, this result will “build momentum” for the vote at the Mercedes-Benz factory, noting that “success is contagious.”
“We set an example for the entire South,” added president of UAW Local 3520 representing Daimler Truck workers, Corey Hill said. “I hope Mercedes in Tuscaloosa (Alabama) was paying attention to what we’re doing.”
Workers at the Daimler plant said they would have gone on strike had a deal not been reached. Cornell University labor professor Art Wheaton told Reuters this could have made employees at the Mercedes factory skittish about joining the UAW.
