In the coming weeks, workers at the Mercedes-Benz car manufacturing plant in Vance, Alabama, will vote on whether to join forces with the Detroit autoworkers union, the United Auto Workers, to bring organized labor to the plant or reject the phony pills that union leaders have repeatedly tried to sell them.

While we wait for their decision, Alabama's future success in developing its economy and attracting industry remains uncertain.

If workers decide to throw in their lot with the UAW, Alabama will join the growing list of states that industrial prospects quickly cross their fingers when looking for locations or expansion. But if workers wisely reject the lure of unionization, our historically low unemployment and historically high economic growth will continue unabated.

The last time the UAW made a concentrated effort to expand its influence in the Southeast was nearly a decade ago, when I introduced a constitutional amendment that demonstrated Alabama’s continued cold shoulder to labor unions, their tactics and their threats to our ability to create jobs.

Since 1953, Alabama has had right-to-work laws prohibiting union membership as a condition of employment, but such laws can be easily repealed or overturned, so I sought to enshrine that protection in the Constitution.

The amendment not only established the right to be employed without being forced to join a trade union, but also banned the practice of imposing compulsory “fees” on non-union employees in lieu of union dues, because they too could enjoy the rights of union membership. Collective bargaining with management.

The amendment also prohibited unions from creating monopolies or preventing competing unions from representing workers on a range of issues.

In a subsequent statewide referendum, Alabamians approved the amendment by a margin of 70% to 30%, eliminating any doubt as to where the state's people stood on the issue.

A few years ago, Alabama also enacted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to a secret ballot in unionization elections.

Prior to the amendment, which passed by a margin of 67% to 32%, labor unions could organize through a process known as “card check,” in which workers simply had to sign a card indicating their desire to unionize, but these efforts often involved threats, coercion and heavy-handed tactics to force employees to join.

Requiring a secret ballot would eliminate the mafia-like pressure often used by labor unions and respect the fundamental freedoms and principles on which our country was built.

For similar reasons, state Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) is currently introducing legislation in the 2024 regular session that would strip state economic development incentives from employers who allow workplace unionization without requiring a secret ballot of employees. The measure would not be retroactive, so it would only apply to future incentive packages and ensure that current agreements are followed in good faith.

Building on similar laws enacted in Georgia and Tennessee, the bill would eliminate or prohibit economic development incentives for employers who voluntarily disclose employees' personal contact information to a labor union or a third party acting on behalf of a labor union without the employee's prior written consent.

It’s a common-sense approach that protects business owners, employees, economic developers, the Alabama Department of Commerce and, most importantly, taxpayers who recognize that incentives such as tax credits, exemptions, forgiveness, loans and grants are provided in exchange for the right to work and open shop employment.

The bill is being fast-tracked by legislative leadership and is expected to become law soon.

Countless factories and manufacturing plants in the Rust Belt's once great industrial cities now lie decaying and empty, the sounds of progress and eager workers replaced by stony silence, punctuated only by the occasional echo of a bird flitting across a beam.

Hope has been replaced by despair. Work has been replaced by unemployment. Opportunity has been replaced by abandonment.

And all of this grief is the result of unions killing the goose that lays the golden eggs in these areas.

The only way to prevent this unfortunate history from repeating itself here is for Alabama autoworkers to stand firm and prevent the UAW from gaining a foothold in our state.

Please join me in praying that they will make wise and right choices.

State Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Indian Springs) has represented Alabama's 43rd House District since 2014.