After VW plant victory, UAW sets its sights on Mercedes in Alabama

-The United Auto Workers has made history by winning its first unionization vote at an auto factory in the U.S. South. Now it needs to prove the success wasnít a fluke by pulling off a second victory at a Mercedes plant in Alabama next month.

UAW representatives at the VW plant also will have to show their mettle by negotiating a contract that gives workers what they have fought for ñ better benefits, improved safety on the job and a greater work-life balance.

The Volkswagen landslide win in Tennessee is expected to provide crucial momentum to UAW President Shawn Fainís $40 million campaign to expand the union outside Detroit to the U.S. South and West, focusing on 13 nonunion auto companies, including Toyota and Tesla.

Fain, a scrappy leader who reveled in last yearís fight with Detroit companies that won double-digit raises and costof-living adjustments, told a party of VW workers that the union would carry the fight on to Mercedes. ìLetís win more for the working class all over this nation,î he said.The Mercedes plant vote, scheduled for mid-May, is expected to be a tougher fight than at VW, which took a neutral position in the vote.Mercedes has said it respects workersí right to organize and wants them to make an informed decision. But in a letter to employees in January, it said that the union organizers ìcannot guarantee you anythingî and that some workers had said no to unionization because of Mercedesí competitive pay and benefits.îMercedes is running a much more aggressive anti-union campaign than Volkswagen within the plant,î said John Logan, labor professor at San Francisco State University.

But he added that the large VW victory that saw 73% of eligible workers vote in favor will provide significant momentum for organizing efforts at other plants in the South.ìThis will give them a huge boost for the Mercedes vote, and if they win that one, too, I wouldnít be surprised to see elections at Hyundai, Honda and Toyota over the next several months,î he said. The UAW says a ìsupermajorityî of the roughly 5,200 eligible workers at the Mercedes assembly plant in Vance, Alabama, and a nearby battery plant in Woodstock support it. UAW policy is to push for a vote once 70% of workers have signed union cards.Much may depend on economics and perceptions about job security. In the traditionally anti-union South where the UAW has lost several fights in the past, six Republican governors have flatly opposed the unionís current campaign, describing it as risking job security since automakers face higher labor costs.