Alabama Mercedes-Benz workers reject UAW bid

Autoworkers at a Mercedes-Benz (MBG.DE, MBGYY) facility in Alabama voted against joining the United Auto Workers union in a 56% to 44% decision. UAW President Shawn Fain said the loss "stings" but vowed to carry on fighting.

Yahoo Finance Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian breaks down what the vote means for the UAW.

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This post was written by Stephanie Mikulich.

Video transcript

A Mercedes Benz plan in Alabama has rejected joining the United Auto Workers Union by a vote of 2642 to 2045 with more on the story.

Let's welcome in our finances is Pras Romani and who's been covering this closely?

It was close.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, it was, I mean, it was gonna come down to wire to the wired.

There was kind of thoughts that it could go either way.

Uh He said that vote came down to a 44%.

Yes vote versus a 56%.

No vote there.

So still it is a, not a totally close vote here.

They, the you would say this is definitely a majority here.

Pick are saying no to the ow sea Fain just did a had a press with the media and, and mention a couple of things that obviously not the result.

We wanted.

These workers reached out to us because they wanted adjustments.

What happens next is up to them.

All the lost stings will keep our heads up.

These workers have nothing to feel sorry for.

We'll continue to carry this fight on.

So it's not the end, you know, when that VW plant in Chattanooga voted, yes, it was the third try that it took for them to, to, to vote.

Yes on.

And that was like, over 70% vote.

So, we'll see if they go back to Alabama.

Um, there's a pending NLRB investigation on, on sort of union busting activity on the part of Mercedes.

So there's some stuff going on there that might sort of change, turn a tide, maybe for another vote we'll see.

But kind of, you know, he said that it's not gonna, it's not gonna stop our momentum, but it is a, a kind of a stinging loss here for them after the big wins in, in Detroit last year.

And then also in, um, in Tennessee earlier this year, do you think, uh, any sense pros maybe they kind of lick their wounds and then target, you know, other companies because there was some hot talk about, you know, maybe Sean Fain had Toyota or Honda in his sites.

Yeah.

You know, they, they probably have these next sites and planned for and, and they said they did polling in the state of Alabama.

Uh, it was 2 to 1 that people want to join you.

But obviously that doesn't always translate when you go into the factory and there's, uh, Nick Saban coming to visit them and speaking to the workers of our, our friend, uh, Ep Rachel Tom and talking about that.

But you know, there's, there's stuff that happens in the factory before that changes, sort of like those perceptions.

So they probably have the next place in mind.

Maybe it is gonna be again because they had the polling.

They'll look at where they can sort of get a victory and we'll see them.

There's definitely not over, but they're focusing on the south.

Right.

That was part of the significance here was sort of breaking, more, breaking into the south and expanding union membership at the auto plants there.

Yes, it's these plants in the states that aren't union friendly, trying to find, you know, apparently they're saying back, back, back in the day, Alabama was a pro union state believe or not.

And things have changed over time.

So they're going to find that next sort of candidate for them that, I mean, they, they need to build a momentum.

Right.

This was not exactly a good thing to happen and, and Sean Fain was, was, was pretty sober on, on, on the call today.

Yeah, because he's, listen, if you're Sean Fe, you're trying to reverse these trends in membership.

You see, and that's what he was counting on for sure.

I mean, this would have been a huge victory if they would have gotten into it.

All right.

Thank you, buddy.

Appreciate it.