United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain spoke with National Public Radio about his efforts to unionize the south after a major victory at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee last week. Fain told NPR the union has its sights set on Alabama next.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said workers at the Mercedes Benz factory in Vance, Alabama will vote between May 13 and May 17 to unionize as well.
“I think we have the strategy down, and our next sites are Mercedes,” Fain said. “The workers there are fired up. They’re fed up. They want a union.”
Fain said the opposition in Alabama has been tougher than what the union giant faced in Tennessee. “We expected that in Tennessee,” he said.
“So I mean, obviously, the governor in Alabama has been a lot more vocal, and some of their political leaders, the Chamber of Commerce,” Fain said, referring to previous remarks about Governor Kay Ivey, the Business Council of Alabama, and automotive companies themselves.
Alabama leaders, including Governor Kay Ivey, as Fain has routinely pointed out, have vowed a dogged defense against UAW’s push to unionize within the state.
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Last week, Ivey, along with the governors of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, issued a joint statement amid the coordinated organizing push.
Ivey has said that the Alabama model for economic success is under attack.
“A national labor union, the United Automotive Workers (UAW), is ramping up efforts to target non-union automakers throughout the United States, including ours here in Alabama. Make no mistake about it: These are out-of-state special interest groups, and their special interests do not include Alabama or the men and women earning a career in Alabama’s automotive industry.”
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.
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