UAW announces union campaign at Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama

[Omaha Steve]

By Michael Sainato Wed 10 Jan 2024 12.00 EST

Over 30% of workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have signed union authorization cards, the United Auto Workers (UAW) announced on Tuesday.

The news is another significant boost to the UAW’s plans to unionize non-union auto workers throughout the US after securing historic contracts for workers at the big three US automakers last year.

Last month, the UAW announced workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, reached the 30% mark in collecting union authorization cards. At Mercedes-Benz the UAW drive hit the 30% mark just six weeks after launching the organizing campaign

“In the past, people didn’t know if we had a pathway forward here,” said Jeremy Kimbrell, a measurement machine operator who has worked at Mercedes since 1999. “Now everybody’s coming together and seeing what the pathway is, and it’s through the union. When we get our union in here, I think people will once again look at Mercedes and say: ‘It’s not just another job, it’s a career job. It’s a job where generations will want to come and work.’ And that’ll spread out to the suppliers and then to the broader area.”

FULL story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/10/uaw-union-mercedes-benz-alabama