UAW Demands Contract Conclusion at Daimler Truck Plant, Next up is Mercedes

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has reached a new labor contract with Daimler Truck at an Alabama assembly plant, and the result could encourage more workers at the nearby Mercedes plant to also vote to join the UAW.

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Workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, and a nearby battery plant in Woodstock will vote on their union representation in an election that concludes May 17. This election will come just weeks after workers at VW’s Tennessee plant voted to join the union, but it is expected to make it harder for the union to gain support at the Mercedes plant.

Read: UAW files charges against Mercedes over alleged anti-union campaign

On Friday, the UAW signed a new labor agreement with Daimler Truck that includes a 25% across-the-board wage increase over four years, a profit-sharing program and cost-of-living adjustments. UAW President Shawn Fain said this outcome will pave the way for other wage workers.

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“The time is right for companies that want workers to feel the pain while taking all the profits,” he said at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday. “The time for corporate greed is over. Today belongs to the working class.”

According to Marick Masters, labor professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, this result will “give momentum” to the vote at the Mercedes-Benz plant and emphasizes that “success is contagious.”

“We are setting an example for the entire South,” added Corey Hill, president of UAW Local 3520, which represents Daimler truck workers. “I hope Mercedes in Tuscaloosa (Alabama) was paying attention to what we were doing.”

Workers at the Daimler plant said they would have gone on strike if an agreement had not been reached. Art Wheaton, a labor professor at Cornell University, told Reuters that this could make Mercedes plant employees wary of joining the UAW.

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