Is the UAW's attempt to unionize Alabama auto plants dead?

The fight to unify some Alabama auto plants is “in a different phase now,” according to an interview with United Auto Workers President Shawn Fein.

That could mean high-profile campaigns to attract workers at Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa County and Hyundai in Montgomery will be pushed back after May’s failure to organize Mercedes-Benz.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the UAW is “not close to getting enough worker support to rally votes” at the plants, citing sources close to the effort.

In May, Mercedes-Benz workers at Vance and the Bibb County battery plant voted against UAW representation by a vote of 2,045 to 2,642 — a margin of 597 votes.

This came next UAW announced that it had gotten 30% of Hyundai’s workforce to sign union cards.

The Journal quoted a union supporter at Hyundai as saying this effort “hit a wall” with only about 40% support.

Landers “Gator” Cook told the newspaper: “In my opinion, it’s dead. They won’t get a union.”

The defeat at Mercedes came less than a month after the union won a major victory by pushing workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga to unionize.

But Mercedes-Benz responded with several actions that seemed to turn the tide. In the midst of the union campaign, Mercedes-Benz announced it would abolish a two-tier pay system that had been the subject of worker ire. The company also instituted a $2 per hour raise for some top employees.

Then, on April 30, Mercedes-Benz called Federico Kochlowski, vice president of operations of the Vance plant, as new president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz US International (MBUSI), replacing Michael Göbel, who has held this position since 2019.

The change came a few weeks after the UAW announced that a supermajority of employees had signed union cards, only two weeks before the vote.

However, Fain said the UAW still has some plans at the Mercedes plant.

“It wasn’t like we were destroyed there,” Fain said. “That was a very, very exciting election.”