The United Auto Workers faces a key test in the South with upcoming vote at Alabama Mercedes plant

The United Auto Workers is aiming for a key victory at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama. More than 5,000 workers at the facility in Vance and nearby battery plant will vote next week on whether to join the UAW. The vote comes a month after workers at a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee overwhelmingly voted to unionize. A win at Mercedes would be a major prize for the UAW, which is seeking to crack resistance to unions in the Deep South, where states have lured foreign auto manufacturers with large tax breaks, lower labor costs and a nonunion workforce.