Union vote at Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance underway

The interior of the UAW Local 112 headquarters in Vance, Ala., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Will McLelland/Alabama Reflector)

Workers at Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Vance began voting Monday on whether to organize a union under the United Auto Workers (UAW). 

Voting will run through Friday. The National Labor Relations Board announced that it plans to count the votes and announce the totals on May 17.

The vote comes after months of organizing at the plant by workers who have criticized stalled pay, benefits and irregular scheduling, and a major pushback led by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and the Business Council of Alabama. 

Mercedes and UAW both declined to comment on Monday. 

Brett Garrard, a team leader and supply chain operator at Mercedes’ battery plant involved in union organizing efforts, said in a Monday phone call that the observers were released from work and were going for a briefing with the Mercedes Legal Group, UAW legal team and the Labor Board.

“So we’re really just now getting kind of boots on the ground and starting to move around,” he said.

The German automaker, lured by a large financial incentive package and low labor costs, announced it would build a plant in Alabama in 1993 and opened its doors four years later. Mercedes-Benz is widely credited with creating Alabama’s automotive industry. In the years after its arrival, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota arrived in the state. 

The UAW has tried to organize the plant in the past, including in 2014, but it has never made it as far as this year. Beyond compensation and scheduling issues, union supporters at the plant said they were encouraged by UAW’s recent victory in a strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers and a vote by Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee last month to join the UAW.

In February, the union said that a majority of workers at Mercedes had signed union cards. In April, the NLRB confirmed a May election. The UAW previously said that they would call for an election when 70% of workers signaled support.

Ivey and the Business Council of Alabama have pushed hard against the union, with Ivey suggesting that a victory would upend Alabama’s economic model.

“Let me be crystal clear that Joe Biden’s UAW has no interest in seeing Alabamians succeed,” Ivey wrote in a previous statement to the Reflector. “Instead, their interest here is ensuring money from hardworking Alabama families ends up in the UAW bank account. That is why they are willing to spend $40 million to gain a foothold in the Southeast’s automotive powerhouse.”

The Business Council of Alabama has also released material against the union, including a website. 

“This week in Tuscaloosa, we have a secret ballot taking place at the Mercedes plant. It is my hope that every worker there votes – it’s crucial that every voice is heard,” Ivey said in an event in Huntsville Monday according to a spokesperson. “We want to ensure that Alabama values, not Detroit values, continue to define the future of this great state.”

Ivey also announced at the Huntsville event that she had signed SB 231, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, which denies economic incentives to any employer who voluntarily recognizes a union.

A message seeking comment was left with BCA Monday.

Garrard said everything was set up for a secret ballot with blacked-out tents, and they were headed for the rest of the training at the time.

“I think it’s gonna go extremely well,” he said. “At this point, I still think that the general public and especially our local government and the BCA will be shocked. I honestly believe that the team members voices’ will be heard.”

This story was updated with comment from Ivey Monday.

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