Mercedes Service Technicians Call Out Anti-Union Firings

Service technicians at a Mercedes Benz dealership on Manhattan’s far west side rallied with union allies on Monday to put pressure on the dealership’s owner to agree to a first collective bargaining agreement. Workers at Mercedes Benz of Manhattan voted to unionize with United Auto Workers Local 259 in May, and the new union members say that management has done everything it can to discourage workers from supporting the unionization effort.  

“We got total pushback in every shape, form and fashion,” Kevin Flowers, a technician at the Mercedes dealership, said of management’s posture prior to the union election. “Every day they kept badgering us, every day they kept telling us how bad the union is."

At least 10 workers – 20 percent of the unit’s entire membership – were fired by the dealership’s owner in the weeks after the election. Several dozen Local 259 members from surrounding dealerships at Monday’s rally where workers and UAW officials placed the blame for union busting squarely at the feet of David Tait, Mercedes Benz Manhattan’s general manager. Read more in The Chief-Leader!