TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (NEWSnet/AP) — The United Auto Workers lost an attempt Friday to organize labor at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Alabama, according to results posted on the union's page.

The voting at the two Mercedes factories near Tuscaloosa — one an assembly plant, the other a battery-making facility — happened a month after the UAW scored a breakthrough victory at Volkswagen's assembly factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that election, VW workers voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW, drawn by the prospect of substantially higher wages and other benefits.

The UAW has seen little success recruiting at nonunion auto plants in the South, where workers have been much less interested in organized labor than in the traditional union strongholds of Michigan and other Midwest states.

About 5,200 workers at the Mercedes plants were eligible to vote on the UAW representation. Balloting was run by the National Labor Relations Board.

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