We Threw Out the Old Playbook: The New Union Drive at Mercedes

Workers at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama went public last week with their campaign to join the United Auto Workers. Over 30 percent of the plant's 5,000 workers have signed union authorization cards. Photo: UAW

https://labornotes.org/2024/01/we-threw-out-old-playbook-new-union-drive-mercedes

January 18, 2024 / Jeremy Kimbrell

Auto workers have had several organizing campaigns at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama. They all follow a similar pattern: Frustrated workers decide there’s enough energy for change in the plant and start talking about organizing.

We reach out to a union, the Auto Workers (UAW), and meet with a staff organizer. They lead us through the steps they’ve all been taught for decades—a playbook that hasn’t worked for us at Mercedes.

Over the years we got frustrated—not only with the company, but also with the ways that past organizers told us union campaigns had to operate. We would often say to UAW reps, “We don’t know how to win, but we know how to lose, and you do too.”

In our latest campaign, mindful of how social media and the speed of technological change have transformed society, we have to accept that old practices won’t work. So we said to the UAW that the traditional approach was out for us.

FULL story at link above.