United Auto Workers' defeat at Mercedes' Alabama plants underscores challenges for organized labor in Southern states

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https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-defeat-at-mercedes-alabama-plants-underscores-challenges-for-organized-labor-in-southern-states-230382

Mercedes employees rally for union support in Alabama on May 5, 2024. AP Photo/Kim Chandler

A majority of the workers at two Mercedes plants near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, rejected an opportunity to join the United Auto Workers union in an election that concluded on May 17, 2024. UAW supporters lost 2,642 to 2,045, just one month after the workers at a Volkswagen plant in the neighboring state of Tennessee chose by a 3-to-1 margin to join the union. Based on my research about organized labor in the United States and other countries and what I learned when I went to Alabama to observe the election and talk to Mercedes workers, I believe what happened in Alabama illustrates how hard labor organizing is in the South, but it’s too soon to write off the UAW’s chances in the region.

Public and private efforts to block unions

The UAW made eight failed attempts to unionize foreign-owned auto plants in the South over the past 35 years. That losing streak ended when it won 73% of all ballots cast in its historic Tennessee win. My most recent book, “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-owned Vehicle Plants,” highlights the big challenges the UAW has long faced in the South. For 40 years, Southern political and business leaders have sought to attract investment to their states – especially from foreign-owned manufacturers – by offering massive subsidies, low taxes, lower labor costs and a largely compliant workforce.

This model has worked. Today, roughly 30% of U.S. autoworkers are in the South, up from about 15% in 1990. Whenever the UAW has tried to unionize the industry in the region, the Southern political establishment, which the Republican Party dominates, has pushed back. Most recently, six Southern GOP governors encapsulated that tradition in a joint letter shortly before the Volkswagen vote. In it, they denounced the UAW’s organizing drive as “special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by.”

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‘Union avoidance playbook’

Automotive executives across the American South have developed what I call a “union avoidance playbook.” This strategy includes locating plants in rural areas with little union membership, screening out hires who might be sympathetic to unions, and dividing the workforce by using temp agencies to fill a significant share of positions. Messaging is equally important. The plants have television monitors in break rooms and cafeterias that run pro-company and anti-union messaging. To undercut support for unions, companies donate lavishly to local churches, charities and politicians.

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