SAN FRANCISCO: The United Auto Workers (UAW) has made history by winning its first unionisation vote at an auto factory in the United States south.

Now it needs to prove the success wasn’t a fluke by pulling off a second victory at a Mercedes plant in Alabama next month.

UAW representatives at the VW plant also will have to show their mettle by negotiating a contract that gives workers what they have fought for - better benefits, improved safety on the job and a greater work-life balance.

The Volkswagen landslide win in Tennessee is expected to provide crucial momentum to UAW president Shawn Fain’s US$40mil campaign to expand the union outside Detroit to the United States south and west, focusing on 13 non-union auto companies, including Toyota and Tesla.

Fain, a scrappy leader who revealed in last year’s fight with Detroit companies that won double-digit raises and cost-of-living adjustments, told a party of VW workers that the union would carry the fight on to Mercedes. “Let’s win more for the working class all over this nation,” he said.

The Mercedes plant vote, scheduled for mid-May, is expected to be a tougher fight than at VW, which took a neutral position in the vote. Mercedes has said it respects workers’ right to organise and wants them to make an informed decision.

But in a letter to employees in January, it said that the union organisers “cannot guarantee you anything” and that some workers had said no to unionisation because of Mercedes’ competitive pay and benefits.

“Mercedes is running a much more aggressive anti-union campaign than Volkswagen within the plant,” said John Logan, labour professor at San Francisco State University.

But he added that the large VW victory that saw 73% of eligible workers vote in favour will provide significant momentum for organising efforts at other plants in the south.

 - Reuters