Mercedes-Benz workers launch union campaign at Tuscaloosa plant

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A group of workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant outside Tuscaloosa said Wednesday they have formed a organizing committee and plan to form a union with the United Auto Workers (UAW).

In a statement, the committee said 30% of workers at the plant, located in Vance, had signed union authorization cards.

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Workers quoted in the statement announcing the union drive said wages had stagnated at the plant.

“Back in the day, you could get by on the pay here,” said Derrick Todd, an online quality team member who began working at the plant in 2005. “We topped out in two years. Now some people go through a temp agency for years before they even get on the pay scale. Year after year, the company says they’ve got record profits and sales, but our pay doesn’t keep up. It’s time to set things right. It’s time that we had our voice heard.”

An email seeking comment was sent to Mercedes-Benz North America on Wednesday morning.

Mercedes-Benz U.S. International team members stand with the Mercedes-Maybach automobile. The luxury SUV is produced at the MBUSI plant in Tuscaloosa County. [Handout Photo]

The drive, if successful, would have major symbolic importance for the Southern automotive industry. Mercedes-Benz’s decision to build the Vance plant, which opened in 1997, is widely credited with bringing auto manufacturing to the region.

Much of that attraction came from the lack of autoworkers’ unions in the state. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7.2% of Alabama workers – about 149,000 people – belonged to a union in 2022. That was below the national average of 10.1%, though it is the highest in the South, a reflection of the state’s history of manufacturing and heavy industry.

Previous UAW attempts to organize the Mercedes-Benz plant, including a drive in 1999 and 2000, were unsuccessful.

Under federal law, workers may request a union election once 30% of the workforce signs authorization cards. However, the committee said that it would try to get 70% of workers at the plant to sign cards, and then request voluntary recognition by Mercedes-Benz or an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.

The Vance plant manufactures the GLE and GLS, two luxury SUV models sold by Mercedes-Benz. It is also producing the EQS and EQE, two luxury electric cars.

An Alabama Arise report published in November found that auto workers in the state make an average of $64,682 a year, more than manufacturing employees ($62,069) and the median household income in the state ($59,674). However, the report also found that Alabama autoworkers’ real wages had declined 11% between 2002 and 2019; that they lagged national autoworkers’ pay, and that Black workers, Hispanic workers and women are paid substantially less in the state industry.

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