The United Auto Workers recently won a unionization vote at a Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now the union is setting its sights on organizing workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama as part of a multi-million dollar campaign to unionize 150,000 workers at more than a dozen non-union auto manufacturing plants in the South.

Mercedes and the UAW have agreed to hold unionization ballots in mid-May at the Vance and Woodstock facilities. Workers will begin voting by secret ballot on May 13, and the National Labor Relations Board will tally the votes and announce the results on May 17.

Of course, UAW organizers are actively trying to persuade workers at the Mercedes plant to vote for the UAW, but the workers are also considering many valid reasons not to vote for the UAW.

Alabama has a long history of refusing to allow workers to form unions in the workplace, including two failed unionization attempts at a Mercedes plant in the past 24 years.

In 2023, only 4.6% of Alabama's private sector workers were unionized, which is not unusual in states with strong right-to-work laws. By way of background, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 allows state governments to determine whether workers can be forced to join a union or pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment. Such right-to-work laws ensure that workers who choose not to join a union are free to seek employment where they wish without being forced to join a union. In 2016, Alabama voters passed a ballot measure that would have included a right-to-work law in the state constitution, with nearly 70% support.

Some Mercedes workers are understandably skeptical of the UAW's unionization drive. They know that inflexible union contracts have contributed to past financial difficulties for the big three automakers, massive job losses in Detroit, and downstream damage to the local economy as plants have closed and domestic manufacturing has moved overseas. They worry that a union victory could force the plant to close in a future downturn, shutting off the taps for billions of dollars of corporate investment in other manufacturing and development projects in Alabama and the South.

Similarly, workers are skeptical of the UAW's grandiose promises to deliver wage and benefit increases in the face of an uncertain economic future and market demand for both EVs and internal combustion engine vehicles.

The lack of a union contract gives Mercedes and its employees the flexibility to respond quickly to market demands and provide win-win solutions that keep facilities up and profitable, and keep employees happy and employed. For example, Mercedes employees point to recent pay increases, bonuses, profit sharing and other benefits that Mercedes has given employees to attract and retain skilled workers as the manufacturer seeks to compete for top talent in a market with low unemployment.

Mercedes workers fear that as long as they are bound by multi-year union contracts, they will not receive additional compensation that reflects meritocratic performance and market realities that favor workers.

Similarly, some younger Mercedes workers worry that the UAW pension plan is not as strong as advertised and could become underfunded or go bankrupt in the future, as other UAW local pension plans have struggled. In 2021, the Biden administration had to bail out hundreds of troubled union, multiemployer pension plans with roughly $100 billion in taxpayer funds.

There is no guarantee that future Congresses or Administrations will grant unions such preferential treatment. As Americans for Fair Treatment's Isabel Blank pointed out in a recent National Review article, “How can unions credibly negotiate on behalf of workers when they're struggling to meet their own financial obligations to employees?”

Workers naturally have many concerns and questions about the upcoming UAW vote. They need to carefully weigh the benefits and risks of unionizing. Personal freedoms, careers, and the entire Alabama economy are at stake.

Tim Harrison is founder and president of Harrison Construction.