The Michigan Governor plays Secretary of State to unionize a Mercedes plant in Alabama. The United Auto Workers helped Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer win election eight years ago. Now she’s returning the favor by asking a German state leader to grease the organizing wheels for the UAW at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Ala.
We obtained a letter Ms. Whitmer sent to Prime Minister Cem Özdemir of the German state Baden-Württemberg, where Mercedes is headquartered.\n\nThe context for the letter is the UAW’s election defeat at Mercedes’s plant in Alabama in 2024 after a major effort by union president Shawn Fain. The UAW claimed that Mercedes engaged in unfair labor practices by allegedly disciplining a worker for union activity and discouraging workers from unionizing. Mercedes denied wrongdoing, and the Trump National Labor Relations Board closed the case in March.\n\nEnter Ms. Whitmer. “As you know, the Mercedes-Benz R&D presence in Michigan is an important one.
We would welcome the opportunity to leverage these incredible resources to support Mercedes-Benz, and all Baden-Württemberg companies interested in growing in the United States,” she writes. By “incredible resources,” does she mean the taxpayer funds she has used to subsidize manufacturers? Is she suggesting a quid pro quo with her German counterpart? That seems to be her implication.\n\nThe UAW talks about the freedom of workers to join a union, but then it resorts to government pressure to help its cause because it can’t make the sale on its own. This is Ms. Whitmer’s last year in office, and voters in right-to-work states like Alabama don’t need her playing UAW ambassador to Germany.
Source: Wall Street Journal US Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing