UAW wins NLRB ruling at Alabama Daimler plant

David A. Arnott
Assistant News Editor

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that carmaker Daimler improperly prevented workers at an Alabama plant from discussing a union and other labor issues while at that facility. Bloomberg explained that an administrative judge had previously ruled the Mercedes Benz employee handbook was wrong to prohibit such interactions between shifts, and that the NLRB affirmed that decision.

That report added that the ruling is a victory for the United Auto Workers union, which has been making an effort to expand its membership to foreign carmakers' plants throughout the South, perhaps most notably at a Volkswagen facility in Tennessee, where workers voted against UAW representation in February.

In its report, Reuters said UAW leadership intends to follow up this ruling with a renewed push to have Daimler follow its own stated policy on organized labor outside the United States, which includes language that the company, "respects the right of collective bargaining," and, "acknowledges the human right to form trade unions." Reuters added that the Alabama plant is the only such Daimler facility that does not have employee representation. -- Bloomberg and Reuters