The UAW hasn’t had the best luck unionizing the South thus far, but one man hopes to bring Mercedes around.
Ward’s Auto reports UAW Local 112 president and MBUSI quality operations employee George Jones is leading the effort to organize the 2,200 full-time employees and 1,200 temporary workers in Vance, Ala. The local has support from German union IG Metall and the Daimler World Employee Committee, as well as favorable rulings from the National Labor Relations Board, though Mercedes has appealed a ruling that would allow union leaflets to be distributed in non-work areas.
According to Jones:
We’re the only ones on this little island. Tuscaloosa (Vance) is a cash cow. All we’re asking for is fairness. Management has total control. It’s all about power.
The president is focused on giving a voice to the union as far as job classifications, staffing and perks go, adding that temp workers earn half of the $29 full-timers receive, with no guarantees of becoming full-time, and no benefits. He says that Mercedes also doesn’t offer a pension plan in MBUSI, while the 401(k) plan provided “is like going to the casino,” citing what happened during the early days of the Great Recession.
Jones says it will take a while for Local 112 — whose membership numbers he did not disclose — to organize the facility, with no set time to hold a vote or card check. Should the UAW win in Vance, however, it would be the first transplant-owned light-vehicle assembly plant in the South to be organized.
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