In a blow to UAW aspirations, workers at Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama have rejected a bid to join the union.

Voting wrapped up Friday morning and the unofficial tally — 2,642 against to 2,045 in favor — was released in the afternoon by the National Labor Relations Board. The UAW loss means thousands of full- and part-time workers at Mercedes-Benz assembly and electric vehicle battery plants in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama, east of Tuscaloosa, will remain without union representation.

The union campaign had come under attack by politicians, including Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, as an effort by outside forces that would hurt the state's auto industry, and the company had been accused of union busting, which it denied.

Union supporters said they were intent on ending the "Alabama discount," the idea that companies benefit from lower wages in the state.

The loss at the U.S. subsidiary of Germany’s Mercedes-Benz could undercut organizing campaign momentum underway at other nonunion plants, including Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama.

The results Friday followed the UAW’s successful vote at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga facility in April, which supporters hoped signaled a shift in the narrative around Southern union organizing. While unions aren’t unknown in the region, auto assembly plants owned by foreign automakers there had been difficult to organize, and experts had predicted the union would face hurdles in its efforts despite a more union-friendly climate nationally in recent years.

Auburn professor sees union momentum slowed

But after the well-publicized strike in 2023 against Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis, owner of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, and contract gains, including wage increases and the return of cost-of-living adjustments, the union announced an ambitious organizing drive.

Rusty Adair, a professor of practice in management and entrepreneurship at Auburn University in Alabama, said the results would likely have an impact on organizing.

"I’m a bit surprised. I definitely think it slows the momentum in Alabama. I’m guessing Hyundai will either not get to a vote or will vote it down. As close as it was, I’m guessing they’ll be back at Mercedes in 12 months," Adair said.

If no objections are filed within five days, the results will be certified, and the union will have to wait a year to file for a new election, according to an email from NLRB spokeswoman Kayla Blado. She also said the total number of eligible voters was 5,075, and that 51 challenged ballots won't be counted because they aren't determinative to the outcome. She noted that there were five void ballots.

Fain blasts Mercedes-Benz conduct

A company statement, provided by spokeswoman Andrea Berg, noted the results and said that "our goal throughout this process was to ensure every eligible team member had the opportunity to participate in a fair election. We thank all team members who asked questions, engaged in discussions and, ultimately, made their voices heard on this important issue. .... Our primary focus is always to provide a safe and supportive work environment for our team members, so they can build superior vehicles for the world."

The union has been highly critical of Mercedes-Benz during the campaign, and UAW President Shawn Fain did not shy away from blasting the automaker again during a news conference Friday afternoon for what he called "egregious illegal behavior." But he also praised the workers who "led this fight," saying that what happens next is up to them.

“While this loss stings, I tell you this, we’re going to keep our heads up, keep our heads held high. We fought the good fight, and we're going to continue on, continue forward. ... Ultimately, these workers here are going to win," he said. "We put everything we had in this fight. We left nothing on the table, so there's no regrets in this fight."

Governor preaches 'Alabama values, not Detroit values'

Mercedes-Benz workers who spoke to the Free Press this week sounded optimistic about the prospects for victory despite a recent ramp-up of antiunion rhetoric and actions from Ivey and others. The governor not only spoke out against the union, she also signed legislation on Monday, the first day of voting at the plants, designed to punish companies that might opt to voluntarily recognize unions.

She told a business-friendly crowd that “Alabama is not Michigan,” and “we want to ensure that Alabama values, not Detroit values, continue to define the future of this great state,” according to al.com.

A number of workers, however, had pushed back on the assertion that outside forces have been the driving factor.

David Johnston, who has been working at Mercedes since August 2022, told the Free Press on Thursday that “we’re very confident” in a union victory.

“This has been 100% worker-led and driven. This is something we want,” Johnston said, noting “nobody’s going to take it away from us.”

Johnston, 26, has been working in electric vehicle battery cell diagnostics but is being shifted to what he described as a comparable vehicle diagnostics job as the automaker recalibrates its EV needs. He said it will mark the seventh schedule change he’s endured since starting work for the automaker.

UAW alleges Mercedes-Benz acted improperly

Johnston cited a desire for better work-life balance in addition to hopes for a better, more transparent pay structure as key reasons to support the union. He described one particularly brutal schedule he was on for a year involving seven 12-hour shifts in a row for several weeks, along with a couple of days off, before getting a five-day break.

Johnston has two daughters, 1 and 6 years old, and said he feels he missed out on a year of his youngest girl’s life.

Although the public face of UAW opposition has been visible through Ivey and other politicians, Mercedes-Benz has faced its own accusations of antiunion activities, too, which the company has disputed. Workers have said, for instance, that they have been forced to watch antiunion videos before starting their shifts or in some cases having to stop production to watch them. Nick Saban, former head football coach at the University of Alabama (after a stint at Michigan State), was even brought in for one mandatory meeting.

The UAW has filed charges against the company with the NLRB as well as with German authorities under a relatively new supply chain law designed to hold companies with operations in Germany accountable for actions even beyond the country’s borders. The UAW announced on Thursday that German authorities were investigating complaints that the automaker’s U.S. subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, had “intimidated, threatened and even fired Alabama workers” as part of an antiunion campaign.

The automaker, for its part, has said that it “has not interfered with or retaliated against any team member in their right to pursue union representation.”

It’s worth noting that as the union campaign heated up last month, the Mercedes-Benz U.S. subsidiary made a major leadership change, replacing then-CEO Michael Goebel with Federico Kochlowski.

The operations in Alabama are significant for Mercedes-Benz, having produced about 4 million vehicles since 1997, according to the company. The assembly plant was also the automaker’s first major facility built outside Germany.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW loses bid to organize a second foreign automaker in South