Why form a union? Here's what some Mercedes workers in Tuscaloosa say

Scheduling consistency, respect from management, and full accountability, along with raises in pay and benefits, are among objectives sought by pro-union employees of Mercedes-Benz U.S.-International's two Tuscaloosa County plants, the assembly facility in Vance, and the battery-production unit in Coaling.

They'd also like time to stop and smell the roses, literally, in the case of 23-year Mercedes-Benz employee Kay Finklea. She thinks morale has declined in large part due to scheduling. Employees were asked for input on a six-by- 10 module, working six days at 10 hour shifts, with two days off. Many responded that wouldn't be conducive to a healthy home-life balance.

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"They did not listen, and they went to it anyway," Finklea said.

Management not hearing or heeding the wants and needs of fellow team members points to broader problems with clarity of communication, and respect for their work, she said.

"I am for the union because I want a voice, better pay, and opportunity to get home and play with my roses, in my yard. That's an enjoyment of mine, and I miss doing that," she said. "So to be able to get off, and just relax and smell the roses."

Much of their concern revolves around a perceived lack of regard, she said.

"It's as though we are children, or as if we don't matter. But we're the ones working, making the money for you, because if it wasn't for us building those cars, you wouldn't be putting the money that you're putting in your pocket," Finklea said. "So, treat us with dignity, treat us with respect .... "

Pro-union Mercedes-Benz workers Finklea and Robert Lett spoke Wednesday evening at their union hall in Coaling , smack in the middle of the union vote week. Voting began Monday, and will run through Friday, on whether to create a local union affiliated with the United Auto Workers. The National Labor Relations Board will count votes, and announce totals, after the close of voting Friday.

Lett has been with Mercedes-Benz for about nine and a half years now, and expressed concerns about workers being mistreated, " ... whether it was getting written up for no reason, or getting fired for questionable reasons. Not getting hired when they were temps.... I can go on for days, but that's been the primary catalyst.

"I just want to see some kind of accountability."

When the count of workers signing a union card went over 50% in February, a video announcement suggested meager raises, a two-tier wage system, and misuse of temporary workers were among top factors. Those were also cited in the UAW's successful fall 2023 Stand Up Strike at the Big Three (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler being the largest in the U.S.).

Mercedes worker Jeremy Kimbrell spoke for the pro-union forces in the video: "After 2008 and 2009, some of our co-workers were forced to leave the company. Consecutive CEOs said they’d be brought back once things improved. Things did improve, but they were never allowed to return and were replaced within six months by temporary workers at half the pay.

"These same temporary workers then worked for up to eight years before receiving full-time jobs. Also during this time, our management gave us a 42-cent raise over a six-year period while making record profits. And these same record profits weren’t enough to prevent Mercedes from imposing an unfair two-tier pay scale just as our children were entering the workforce."

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Workers get so aggravated by conditions, some express a lack of care about what they do, Finklea said.

"I don't ever want get to that point, because I believe that your work should speak for you. You should never have to open your mouth and say a word. Your work should be able to explain and just pretty much speak for you," she said.

But the work environment seems to stifle those better attitudes, hence the union drive, she said.

"The respect is big, because they promote integrity constantly," Finklea said. "That's something that they talk about regularly.

"But integrity is doing right when nobody's watching. So if you can't do right when you're being watched, how can you do right when nobody's watching you?"

A culmination of concerns, not any one issue, has brought organizing efforts forward, she said.

"They're all up there together," Finklea said. "They all have weight, I promise you."

The South remains notoriously anti-union, but pro-union Mercedes-Benz workers take heart from Big Three concessions won last fall, and more recently, with the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, going union in April. That made VW the first automobile plant in the South to unionize via election since the 1940s and the first foreign-owned car plant in the South to go union.

When Tuscaloosa won the German automaker in 1993 — considered a surprise; the Los Angeles Times headline read "Rural Hamlet Beats Out Carolinas for $300 million plant" ― among the reasons given were large financial incentive packages, a wealth of land adjacent to the interstate, access to airports in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, and low labor costs.

Tuscaloosa also scored on intangibles, such as The Tuscaloosa Symphony and its world-class home in the University of Alabama's Moody Music Building, and the resemblance, to some, of our rolling green hills to homes back in Germany. Four years after the announcement, the first cars rolled out.

The Mercedes coup was considered the vanguard in Alabama's growth into the auto industry. Since then, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai have set down roots in the state.

Previous attempts to unionize the Mercedes-Benz plant have fallen short, the most recent significant drive in 2014. Though signs have been positive, workers still feel this week's vote will be a close one.

This drive came from within, pro-union forces say, despite how much assistance the UAW offered. Still, many remain equivocal, largely down to fear of losing their jobs.

"And we've been trying to come at them with facts, and our own experiences, saying 'No, you have nothing to fear if we just stick together.' If we stick together, then we can actually hold them accountable when they do things wrong," Lett said.

Management has been attempting to sway workers toward a no vote in occasionally insidious ways, he said. For example, a banner hung in front of the plant was printed on both sides. The one facing outward, toward the interstate, showed a hand placing a vote into an unmarked box, while the one facing inward, where departing workers would see, showed the hand placing a vote into a box marked No.

"We have some that are still reluctant. Some people you just can't get them to see," Finklea said. They're there. They see it, they complain about it. They complain about the unfairness. They complain about the mistreatment, they complain about the pay, the long hours, but they don't want to do anything about it.

"I'm at the point in my life, I don't want to stand on the sidelines and say 'What if?' I want to try to make a difference if I can."

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Why form a union? Here's what some Tuscaloosa Mercedes workers say