Alabama Mercedes Workers Lose First Union Election, Vow to Continue the Fight
"We’ve been trying this for 25 years," one worker said. "We’ll try again next year and every year till we get it."
A no-holds-barred campaign by Mercedes management convinced a majority of workers at its Alabama factory complex to vote against forming a union. In addition to anti-union videos and mailings, captive-audience meetings, firings, and an onslaught of pressure from state politicians and even a local pastor, the winning move was to fire the company’s U.S. CEO and replace him with a vice president who...