BERLIN (Reuters) – German premium carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Wednesday rejected claims that it has been trying to prevent the formation of a union at its Alabama plant.
The group “respects the decision of the employees to establish a trade union organization, and it will monitor the election process and will make sure that every team member has the opportunity to cast a secret vote”, Mercedes’ board member Renata Jungo Bruengger said at the annual shareholders meeting.
United Auto Workers, the United States’ biggest automotive union, said about 5,000 workers are set to vote next week on whether to unionise at Mercedes’ plant in Vance, Alabama.
Jeremy Kimbrell, a union drive leader at the factory, claimed that Mercedes has been trying to counter unionising by hiring anti-union consultancy RWP, which tried to discourage workers from joining.
Kimbrell’s claims were read out at the AGM by a representative of Germany’s Association of Critical Shareholders (DKA), which represents small investors on environmental, social and governance issues.
Mercedes declined to comment on whether it had hired the consultancy, whose CEO on LinkedIn describes the firm as helping companies to remain union-free.
(Reporting by Andrey Sychev, Ilona Wissenbach and Ben Klayman; Editing by Rachel More)
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