ATLANTA — “We feel great,” Jim Spitzley, a Mercedes-Benz worker in Vance, Alabama, and veteran fighter for representation by the United Auto Workers, told the Militant by phone April 7. “Everyone at work is excited that we filed for the union election. We expect to get a date for the vote soon.”
Spitzley and other union supporters filed their petition with the National Labor Relations Board April 5. This union-building move in Vance comes just a few weeks after workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, filed to be represented by the UAW there. The union vote at VW will take place April 17-19.
“We passed out a handbill about the filing that morning,” said Spitzley, who has worked at Mercedes for 27 years. “Then the company shut down practically the whole plant and read us a memo saying that an election would take place.” All hourly employees — some 4,500 workers — will be allowed to vote, he said.
The UAW reports that more than 10,000 autoworkers at 14 nonunion auto companies, mainly in the Southeast, have signed union cards in recent months, following last fall’s UAW strikes against the Big Three U.S. auto companies that led to important gains.
“We started signing [union] authorization cards Thanksgiving weekend, and it just stacked up quick,” Jeremy Kimbrell, who has worked at Mercedes for 24 years, told National Public Radio. “It was like workers were starving for it, and it took off.”
Union supporters at Mercedes-Benz had made several earlier unsuccessful efforts to have a union election since the plant opened in 1997.
“The UAW has a group of organizers here now to help get ready for the vote, and we have a phone bank going to talk to co-workers about the importance of voting ‘yes’ in the election,” Spitzley said.
“A rapid election will help the vote for the union,” he said. “It means the company will have less time to do all their union-busting and anti-labor harassment and propaganda.” Workers are trying to end what the union calls the auto bosses’ “Alabama discount,” by winning higher wages, better working conditions, and dignity and fair treatment on the job.
Union supporters also filed unfair labor practices charges against Mercedes-Benz in late March, calling for an injunction to stop company harassment and disciplinary action against union supporters.