Union vote canceled at Mercedes supplier

April Wortham | | Automotive News /NASHVILLE -- A union organizing vote set for Friday, Dec. 1, at a supplier to Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. in Vance, Ala., has been canceled after the United Auto Workers accused the company of unfair labor practices.

About 380 employees at Ai3, a supply-chain management company that assists Mercedes in its just-in-time sequencing, were scheduled to vote on whether to organize under the UAW.

Doug Marshall, resident officer of the National Labor Relations Board’s Birmingham, Ala., office, said the UAW filed an initial complaint on Nov. 15 along with a request to allow the vote to proceed.

The first complaint listed eight separate allegations against Ai3, beginning Sept. 29 when the union says Ai3 management ordered employees to remove UAW stickers and pins from their uniforms.

Under NLRB regulations, a charge of unfair labor practices automatically cancels a pending vote unless the union petitions otherwise.

But the UAW late Tuesday, Nov. 28, filed an amendment to its initial complaint that adds 21 allegations. Because the amended complaint does not include a request that the vote take place as scheduled, it has been canceled, Marshall said.

Ai3 is a joint venture of trucking and logistics company Averitt Express Inc., of Cookeville, Tenn., and i3 Logistics Group, of Atlanta. Workers are employed by Averitt Express and Team One Contract Services, of Alpharetta, Ga.

The amended complaint added Averitt Express, i3 Logistics and Team One Contract Services as defendants.

Mercedes leases space in the 400,000-square-foot Ai3 warehouse, which opened in July 2004 and sits within a half-mile of the automaker's assembly plant in Vance, Ala.

The UAW has tried unsuccessfully to organize the Mercedes plant in Alabama and is awaiting word from an AFL-CIO arbitrator to determine whether the UAW or the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers should have exclusive rights to try to organize the plant.