Ahead of a union vote, Mercedes-Benz management in Alabama shared an online form with factory employees to anonymously submit questions about unionization. The form quickly went viral after being obtained by organizer and journalist Luis Feliz Leon, who says an employee at the car factory asked him to get people to flood it with “pro-union questions, or just some bullshit.”
Some responded to the form with pro-union sentiments, but others took the worker’s “bullshit” suggestion seriously and trolled Mercedes management.
Earlier this month, Mercedes-Benz employees at the Alabama factory petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election on whether the workers would join the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union.
The vote has been set for May 13-17, according to UAW, but tensions in Alabama are high: the state’s Governor, Kay Ivey, signed a joint statement with other Southern Governors in opposition to UAW.
“Solidarity request from Mercedes worker in Alabama: Management is handing these out in the morning meeting,” Leon tweeted, alongside the form. “Make it go viral!”
The form asks “Do you have questions about unionization?” Answers can be submitted anonymously and can be up to 200 characters.
Leon’s tweet garnered nearly 200,000 views on X and was retweeted almost 400 times. X users’ responses to the form included pro-union sentiments and the lyrics to pro-union songs.
“Why is the median wealth for a union household $338,482,” one X user asked in the form. “And only $199,948 for a non-union household?”
“They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn, but without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn. We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn,” another X user wrote in the form, reciting the lyrics to “Solidarity Forever,” a famous union anthem. “That the union makes us strong.”
“Don’t scab for the bosses, don’t listen to their lies, poor folks ain’t got a chance unless we organize,” another X user asked, reciting the lyrics to “Which Side Are You On?,” another union anthem. “Which side are you on, boys?”
Other X users ridiculed the Mercedes-Benz management by inputting irrelevant—or damning—questions in the form. One person submitted a reference to the popular “Have you ever had a dream…” meme. Another asked what the status of unions in Mercedes-Benz plants was between 1933 and 1945. During that time, the German company was manufacturing military weapons for Nazis.
According to Leon, Mercedes-Benz management also shared materials reminding workers that even though there will be a vote to join the union, they “still have a right to vote” for or against it.
Despite the online push to help pro-union workers troll the company, not all Alabama plant workers want to join the UAW: Some employees told AL.com, an Alabama local news site, that the push for the union seems to be coming from younger workers who have been able to convince their older colleagues to vote for it.
“I don’t need anyone else to speak for me,” an Alabama Mercedes-Benz employee told AL.com of the union… “My success or failure is ultimately up to me. It’s my personal responsibility.”
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