Let me see your papers, er, union card – all of you.
The labor wars in the Southern U.S. are intensifying with the help of a powerful German union. Mercedes-Benz employees and the UAW, “with support from the Daimler World Employee Committee and the German automotive trade union IG Metall,” announced yesterday the formation of UAW Local 112 to represent workers at the assembly plant in Vance, Alabama, which is just outside of Tuscaloosa.
The strategy that is emerging is a long-term UAW play involving pressure from IG Metall on German automakers to recognize unions in the “right to work” Southern U.S. AutoInformed bets that coming soon will be a similar deal at the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
This latest unionization attempt follows the semi-failure of the UAW’s attempt to organize the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee this past February. This is the only VW plant in the world without a works council and union representation at the Board level. As a compromise, a union was formed and a new SUV will be built in an expansion of this plant, but participation in what is now UAW Local 42 is claimed to be voluntary. There are no dues, at least so far. Last February, workers at the plant narrowly voted 712 to 626 against the union. It looks like the union will eventually prevail here after years of failure and outright hostility from Southern politicians.
How the UAW organizes Japanese and Korean U.S. plants in the American South is not as clear. Japanese unions are weak and closely aligned with management. Korean unions, much feistier, have no real ties to the UAW.
