UAW Claims Mercedes Lied to Employees

The United Auto Workers continue to push back against Mercedes-Benz after losing last month's union vote. UAW President Shawn Fane claims the company has reneged on promised pay and benefit improvements made in the runup to the weeklong vote. His allegations are contained in a letter he wrote to labor oversight agencies in this county and Germany and posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) organizer and activist Luis Feliz Leon.

The Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (a German federal agency) and the union friendly U.S. Labor Relations Board have launched formal investigations into UAW complaints that Mercedes conducted unfair labor practice pre-election. Something union experts say is a typical union tactic.

When the union votes were tallied on May 17th 2,045 workers (44%) had voted for the union, while 2,642 workers (56%) voting against it. UAW shortly after requested the NLRB order a revote based on their claims of illegal anti-union activity.

Earlier this week Fain complained the company is wrongly claiming they are not allowed to provide promised pay hikes and other improvements at the Tuscaloosa County facilities. In a letter dated June 19th, Fain says," MBUSI employees report that management is telling workers that they are unable to follow through on promised increases in wage, benefits and working conditions because the UAW filed objections to last month's union election."

Pro-union workers are alleging they were blindsided by Mercedes when they were notified of a scheduled July shutdown to re-tool the plant, without pay.

In his letter Fain writes that MBUSI VP of Operations Rolf Wrona claims the company could not pay workers for the upcoming scheduled plant shutdown because they are still in a labor law "status quo".

According to NLRB regulations, "status quo" is when a company cannot, "Make changes in wages, hours, working conditions, or other mandatory subjects of bargaining before negotiating with the union to agreement or overall impasse, unless (1) the union prevents the parties from reaching agreement or impasse; (2) economic exigencies compel prompt action; or (3) the proposed change concerns a discrete, recurring event scheduled to recur in the midst of bargaining (such as an annual merit-wage review), and you give the union notice and opportunity to bargain over that matter."

UAW charges that since the company remains non-union, "status quo" does not apply.

In the letter, Fain told the German federal agency the company is incorrectly blaming the union for their own backtracking on their promises to Mercedes employees before the vote.

The main who himself conducted an aggressive pro-union campaign is blaming the company for, "...a continuation of MBUSI's aggressive of an anti-union campaign." He urged the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control to, "Encourage Mercedes to follow through on promises made to the hard-working employees in Alabama."

Fain also asked the German labor oversight organization to do it in the same way they conducted their anti-union campaign via messages, group meetings, email and text messages.

The UAW leader believes going through Mercedes-Benz home country's labor regulator could bring pressure on MBUSI because Germany has some of the strictest labor laws in the world.

In a response by a Mercedes spokesperson, the company stated in general terms, "As we wait for final review of the election by the NLRB, we continue to work to build upon our strong record of success over the past 25+ years' operating as One Team in Alabama.”