Mercedes-Benz staff in Alabama have voted in opposition to union illustration by the United Auto Employees, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board mentioned Friday.

The outcomes are a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after the Detroit union received an organizing drive of roughly 4,330 Volkswagen plant staff in Tennessee. Voting began Monday and ended Friday.

Union organizing failed with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 staff, casting ballots in opposition to the UAW, in line with the NLRB, which oversaw the election. Greater than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz staff voted within the election, in line with the outcomes.

The NLRB mentioned 51 ballots have been challenged and never counted, however they are not determinative to the result of the election. There have been 5 void ballots. 

The union and firm have 5 enterprise days to file objections to the election, together with any alleged interference, in accordance to the NLRB. If no objections are filed, the election consequence shall be licensed, and the union should wait one yr to file for a union election for the same bargaining unit.

Mercedes-Benz in a press release mentioned firm officers “look ahead to persevering with to work straight with our Crew Members to make sure [Mercedes-Benz US International] isn’t solely their employer of selection, however a spot they’d suggest to family and friends.”

The loss is anticipated to harm the UAW in an unprecedented organizing drive launched late final yr of 13 non-union automakers within the U.S. after securing report contracts with Detroit automakers Ford Motor, Common Motors and Stellantis. These agreements included vital wage improve, reinstatement of cost-of-living changes and different advantages.

UAW President Shawn Fain mentioned whereas the Mercedes-Benz vote was clearly not the consequence the union needed, it was a valiant effort, including the vote “is not a failure” however a “bump within the highway.”

“Whereas this loss stings, I will let you know this, we’ll maintain our heads up, maintain our heads up excessive. These staff don’t have anything to do however be proud within the effort they put forth and what they’ve achieved,” he mentioned Friday throughout a media convention. “We fought the great struggle and we’ll proceed on, proceed ahead. In the end, these staff listed here are going to win.”

The Mercedes-Benz vote was anticipated to be tougher for the union than the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, the place the union had already established a presence after two failed organizing drives previously decade and the place it confronted much less opposition from the automaker.

Stephen Silvia, creator of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Employees at Overseas-Owned Automobile Vegetation,” famous Mercedes-Benz changed the plant’s chief weeks forward of the election. He mentioned corporations routinely do that, promising staff modifications at their amenities in an effort to stave of organizing.

“Corporations do anti-union campaigns as a result of they are often efficient, and I believe this one was efficient,” mentioned Silvia, a professor at American College in Washington, D.C. “A standard piece of an anti-union marketing campaign is firing the plant supervisor … That appears to have persuaded sufficient of the employees to vote in opposition to the union.”

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who was one among six Republican governors to sentence the union’s organizing drive, hailed the result of the vote.

“The employees in Vance have spoken, and so they have spoken clearly! Alabama isn’t Michigan, and we aren’t the Candy House to the UAW. We urge the UAW to respect the outcomes of this secret poll election,” she mentioned.

Employees at Mercedes-Benz’s Tuscaloosa plant, situated about 60 miles southwest of Birmingham, have produced greater than 4 million automobiles because the plant opened in 1997, together with 295,000 automobiles in 2023, in line with the plant’s web site.

The Alabama plant at the moment produces automobiles such because the gas-powered GLE and GLS Maybach SUVs in addition to the all-electric EQS and EQE SUVs.

The NLRB final week mentioned it continues to course of and examine open unfair labor apply expenses filed by the UAW in opposition to automakers, together with six unfair labor apply expenses in opposition to Mercedes-Benz since March.

Fain mentioned Friday the union would proceed to maneuver ahead with these expenses. He declined to say whether or not the union plans to problem the election outcomes, saying he’d “go away that” to the union’s authorized crew.

The fees allege that Mercedes-Benz has “disciplined staff for discussing unionization at work, prohibited distribution of union supplies and paraphernalia, surveilled staff, discharged union supporters, compelled staff to attend captive viewers conferences, and made statements suggesting that union exercise is futile,” the NLRB mentioned.

The union has filed different expenses in opposition to automakers Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Rivian, Tesla and Toyota, in line with the NLRB.