UAW's push to unionize factories in the South faces latest test at 2 Mercedes plants in Alabama

The United Auto Workers union faces the latest test of its ambitious plan to unionize auto plants in the historically nonunion South when a vote ends at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The voting Friday at an assembly plant and a battery-making facility comes a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen’s assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the union, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits. The UAW had little success before then recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South.