Mercedes Employees In Vance Go Public With Push To Unionize

VANCE, AL — A public campaign has been launched by employees at Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) in Vance as they push to become members of join the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).

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In an announcement by the national labor union, it was announced that 30% of the plant’s workforce had signed union authorization cards. This marks a key milestone in the push for unionization, with the effort now going public.

The effort at MBUSI comes on the heels of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga last month reaching the 30% threshold and going public with their drive to join the union.

Jeremy Kimbrell, a measurement machine operator who has worked at Mercedes since 1999, said that in the past, people didn’t know if there was pathway for unionization at MBUSI.

“Now everybody’s coming together and seeing what the pathway is, and it’s through the union," he said. When we get our union in here, I think people will once again look at Mercedes and say, it’s not just another job, it’s a career job. It’s a job where generations will want to come and work. And that’ll spread out to the suppliers and then to the broader area.”

In making its case for the plant in Vance, UAW pointed out that Mercedes made $156 billion in total profits over the last decade, with profits growing 200% over the last three years from the previous three years.

Derrick Todd, an online quality team member who’s worked at MBUSI since 2005, reflected on how wages at the plant used to provide for a comfortable living.

“We topped out in two years," he said. "Now some people go through a temp agency for years before they even get on the pay scale. Year after year, the company says they’ve got record profits and sales, but our pay doesn’t keep up. It’s time to set things right. It’s time that we had our voice heard.”

Jim Spitzley, a team leader at MBUSI, echoed this sentiment, saying that when the plant first opened it was the "shining three-point star of Alabama" — referring to the German automaker's iconic logo.

“I’ve been here 27 years and the morale has been steady in the downward direction," he said. "Even when I started, I rotated shifts for 15 years, so I missed a lot of time with my kids when they were little. I’m on straight days now, but when a new model year comes out I can still work 12 out of 13 weekends. We have to have a voice to turn things around. The union is our voice. That’s how the new people coming in are going to be treated fairly. That’s how we end the two tiers.”

UAW lauded the growing movement and mentioned its highly publicized Stand Up Strike against the "Big Three" automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. But the union lamented that, despite some making marginal changes, wages remain a primary concern.

Indeed, Moesha Chandler — an assembly team member who began working at MBUSI last January — said employees feel like they are living to work instead of working to live.

“I started as a temp making $17.50 an hour," she said. "I’m full-time now, but I’m still living paycheck to paycheck. If I have a shopping spree, it’s for my work clothes, not fun clothes. If we had the union, we’d feel more protected, more at ease. We wouldn’t feel like a gazelle to a lion.”

Underscoring the growing influence of UAW in west Alabama, the push for unionization at MBUSI also comes after Patch reported in September when 190 UAW members employed at ZF Chassis System — a parts supplier for MBUSI — voted to go on strike after negotiations failed for a new collective bargaining agreement with the company.

Still, for employees like Kay Finklea, a longtime MBUSI quality inspector, the changes she has seen over the years have not been for the better.

“Maybe management pretended to care about us before," she said. "Now they don’t even pretend. The wages, the long hours, the disrespect, it just adds up. We need to make a change for the better at Mercedes. We should be able to work, make decent money and spend time with our families.”

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