Mercedes workers at an Alabama plant call for union representation vote

A majority of workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, are calling for a vote to join the United Auto Workers union, which is on a drive to sign up non-union plants across the country.

According to a Friday announcement from the UAW, the Mercedes workers have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for the vote.

Their call for a union election arrives just weeks after workers at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, set a date to vote for UAW representation.

The Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, had a total of about 6,100 employees as of the end of 2023. More than 5,000 are calling for the union vote, UAW said Friday.

“We are voting for safer jobs at Mercedes,” Moesha Chandler, an assembly team member at Mercedes, said in a statement shared in union’s announcement. “When you’re still in your twenties and your body is breaking down, that’s not right. By winning our union, we’ll have the power to make the work safer and more sustainable.”

No date for the plant’s union vote has been set yet, but the UAW said the Mercedes workers hope to vote by early May.