Gisele Regatao

By Regina Martinez

Jeremy Kimbrell was a temporary worker at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, AL, in 2000, when he made a mistake on his time sheet. What seemed to be a small error soon turned into an investigation, and Kimbrell, just 23 at the time with a newborn at home, was fired.

But his coworkers rallied around him. Both pro- and anti-union workers came together to plead his case with the human resources department, and signed petitions for his return. Management caved to the pressure and Kimbrell was not only allowed back the next day, but was promoted to a full-time position. 

“That taught me the power of unity,” said Kimbrell, noting that the experience led him to decide “From this point on I will pay it forward many times over. I’ll pay it forward the rest of my life.”

Today, 24 years later, Kimbrell is still “paying it forward,” leading a majority of workers to sign union cards. And even though his plant voted against unionization 56 percent to 44 percent in mid-May, Kimbrell said the campaign to organize led to many improvements, including a rise in pay and the appointment of a new CEO. “For me, that shows the power workers have when they stick together,” he said. A week after losing that vote, UAW filed a complaint with National Labor Relations Board asking for a new vote, saying Mercedes-Benz violated labor laws.

The loss at Mercedes-Benz might slow the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) momentum. Last year, workers at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis scored new contracts, and earlier this year Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voted to join the union, a milestone. UAW is committing $40 million to organize auto and battery workers through 2026. 

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, unionized workers typically make 20 percent more than non-union workers. Kimbrell, a coordinate-measurement machine operator, makes $32 an hour. That’s about one-third less than a unionized auto worker in Detroit with his seniority, and half of what a unionized auto worker makes in Germany – where every Mercedes-Benz plant is unionized. 

“If you can come here and not deal with unions, then hey, that’s an added benefit for them to be able to do business here,” said labor-education expert Bob Bussel, regarding foreign auto companies that operate in the U.S. 

Appropriate compensation is important for workers at Alabama plants, but so is job stability. 

Kimbrell explained that, when the 2008 Great Recession hit, hundreds of workers were let go and replaced with temporary workers. He said that, during one recent six-year period, Mercedes gave longtime employees a 42-cent raise while making record profits. 

By global market capitalization, Mercedes-Benz was more profitable than Ford, Stellantis and GM in 2023. Meanwhile, a 2023 study reported that autoworker wages dropped by 11 percent from 2002 to 2019.

For many months leading to the vote, Kimbrell was confident, but he said things changed recently, as the company started implementing some improvements, such as eliminating the two-tier pay system, even as it increased its anti-union campaigning. “Volkswagen didn’t fight like Mercedes-Benz did,” he said. “In our plant, it was brutal, absolutely brutal, especially at the end.”

A long wait for UAW

Kimbrell applied to work for Mercedes-Benz in 1999 because there was a buzz that a union would come in and hire the temporary workers full-time. Two decades later, he has watched multiple attempts by the UAW to unionize Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) employees (in 1999-2000, 2007, 2013-2014) fail. 

After years of frustration, he began to strategize independently — while being under UAW advisement. 

“He made a call to me, said his kids were grown, this was a good cause and he needed to do something about it,” said  Stephen Sims, a friend and coworker of over twenty years. “Now the UAW has let Jeremy kind of run it.”  

Kimbrell has focused on a worker-led strategy. First, he created a “core group” (also known as the Voluntary Organizing Committee, or VOC,) recruiting a small circle of about 20 respected workers, in a plant of over 5,000, willing to lead meetings, hand out union cards and map out a network. 

Since the plant is vast — it is Mercedes’s largest U.S. plant — Kimbrell emphasized that recruiting team leaders, floor walkers, and floor riders was essential. 

Team leaders oversee 50-70 people at a time, floor riders deliver parts across the plant, and floor walkers travel up and down the line. Their mobility allows them to interact with dozens of people during a shift, so if you recruit one to the core group you could recruit many. Kimbrell also highlighted that starting face-to-face conversations and creating personal relationships was crucial, especially since management punished campaigning on company time.  

Mercedes’s Principles of Human Rights and Social Responsibility insists that “the company and its executives shall remain neutral” amidst organizing efforts, but Kimbrell said that management at his Alabama plant continuously pushes anti-union rhetoric, mandates employees to watch anti-union videos, refuses to allow the distribution of union literature in non-work areas and even administers write-ups and probations for campaigning on company time. This has led the UAW to file charges against Mercedes-Benz for a clear human rights violation under the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains. 

“Companies have slick anti-union propaganda,” said Bussel, the labor-education expert. “They really do try to make people fearful for their job.”  

Added Jacob Ryan, a member of the organizing committee and founder of Bring the UAW to MBUSI: “What Jeremy has done with this push has been amazing. Despite company push back, he got us to first start meeting again.”

The worker-led strategy has moved fast. In 2013, it took the UAW-led campaign six months to get 30 percent of workers to sign union-authorization cards in a plant of 2,000. In January of 2024, Kimbrell said, it took seven weeks to get signatures from 30 percent of a plant with 5,000 workers; just a month later, he announced, over half had signed. 

With the momentum at their backs, UAW President Shawn Fain visited the plant in late March to meet with Kimbrell and other lead organizers.  

“It’s my honor to be here, to be with so many badass, fed-up auto workers who are ready to stand up,” said Fain as Kimbrell stood in the audience.

Legally, workers at Mercedes-Benz have to wait for at least a year before voting on unionization again. Kimbrell said a vote probably won’t happen next year, but it will happen in less than five years. He believes there’s hope for the UAW in other plants in the south. “Without a union contract, gains can be washed away,” he said. “I would like to encourage those workers to keep pressing forward.”

By Massimo Accardo

Raymond Emerick is a retired carpenter from Chicago who now teaches career technical education at Benton Harbor High School in southwest Michigan. His mission is to prepare his students for a new wave of opportunities. “It’s the best time in the last 50 years to get a job in the trade unions,” he said. 

According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now 29,000 Americans who work in trades, transportation and utilities – up from 26,000 ten years ago. However, many of the workers in this field are aging out of the profession. 

Emerick believes there is ample opportunity, and it is being squandered. “Guys my age are retiring with no young guys coming behind,” he said.

The average journeyman electrician is 53 years old and 70 percent of supervisors are baby boomers, according to the National Electrical Contractors Association. A majority of the electrical workforce will reach retirement age in the next two decades and over 12,000 jobs will need to be filled to supplement vacant roles and trade growth. 

Emerick’s technical-education program is among several other efforts in Benton Harbor and around Michigan aiming to meet the labor demand. Students can apply credits toward their apprenticeships and get a journeyman card within three years, depending on the trade and the company that hires them. 

Union workers visit Benton Harbor High School and explain to the students how appealing a blue-collar job can be, as it often includes benefits, a pension and job security. In the U.S., an apprentice carpenter can begin with a salary around $40,000 and earn nearly double after several years, including overtime. 

The high demand for trade workers is happening as college enrollment is down nationwide. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2010 and 2021, undergraduate enrollment decreased by 15 percent. 

Steven Benscoter, president and chief operating officer of the door manufacturing company Special-Lite in Benton Harbor, said some students are starting to question whether a college is worth the money. 

“What’s the value of taking on the debt for a four-year degree and what do I get in return for that?” said Benscoter who is also on the board for the Michigan Colleges Alliance.

Kristian Trae, a student at Washtenaw Community College, shares this sentiment. For a two-year period at WCC, students will learn a specialized skill and exit with a certification, and in Trae’s case, a guaranteed job.

Trae is an apprentice at Zoller Inc., a company that specializes in tool measurement. He is training to be a computerized numerical control setup technician and receives $21.30 per hour for his days in the shop and $200 for his twice-weekly days on campus. 

“The only thing they ask for is eagerness,” Trae said. “Eagerness to learn and to improve.”

In Michigan, the annual cost of in-state tuition for community college is just over $4,000, about one- quarter of what students pay for a four-year university.

Poverty and teen pregnancy

The youth in Benton Harbor face other challenges as they prepare to enter the job market.

Poverty and teen pregnancy remain prominent issues in the city, often times preventing economic mobility. 

A study conducted in 2020 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services found that Benton Harbor was ranked as the city with the highest teen birth rates in all of Michigan. 

James Gunter Sr. is the founder of Present Pillars, a nonprofit organization in Benton Harbor that offers peer mentorship for young fathers. He said that once people enroll in the program, one of the first things they check off is whether they are interested in trades. 

“You don’t want that grace period” between high school and college where “they’re not doing anything because the chances are, that’s where you’ll get stuck,” he said.

Rayvonte Bell is a recruiter for the Michigan Workforce Development Institute, a partner of Present Pillars. The goal of the organization is to funnel anyone interested in the trades into a nine-week program to introduce them to the basics and then pair them with an apprenticeship. 

Online classes take place Tuesday through Friday and in-person classes are on Saturday mornings. There they learn OSHA 30, which is a safety prerequisite for most employers, as well as CPR and other certifications. 

“The trades have come to us,” Bell said. The courses are taught by tradespeople, most of whom are looking to employ. 

The Michigan Workforce Development Institute receives federal grants under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act through Michigan’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO). Since 2019, LEO has received more than $27 million in federal funding to incentivize apprenticeships. 

Math and marijuana

Despite federal aid, education gaps are preventing some young adults from entering the workforce. 

According to State Representative Joey Andrews, whose District 38 includes Benton Harbor, math proficiency exams have been a roadblock for many students. “That is where a whole bunch of them hit a filter point,” he said.

In the Benton Harbor School District, less than 10 percent of high school students tested at or above the reading and math proficiency level for their age group this year.

This trend is reflected in the Institute’s first cohort, where only two applicants made it through all nine weeks. According to Bell, the second cohort will begin in June and end in August, at which point he hopes to have 16 applicants graduate. 

However, there is another barrier preventing the program from reaching its full potential. “When it comes to the drug test, a lot of people I recruited ended up failing, specifically on the THC test,” Bell said. 

Although recreational use of marijuana is legal in Michigan, Bell’s program is federally funded and must adhere to federal guidelines. If marijuana is detected during a screening, candidates forfeit their opportunity and must wait 90 days to re-apply.

“It creates a lot of inequities, especially when you have high marijuana use among youth, and particularly around Black and Brown youth,” Andrews said.

Another hurdle for people who live in Benton Harbor is the lack of public transportation. “It’s hard to get a job if you can’t get to work, and you can’t get a car if you don’t have a job, so you’re sort of stuck in this endless loop,” Andrews added.

To help combat this issue, the Michigan Workforce Development Institute gives members of its program a weekly $50 gas card as well as a weekly $200 stipend, according to Bell. The program also accepts felons. 

Andrews believes this historically unique time in the trades can change things for Benton Harbor youth. “If you want to escape generational poverty, you have to take a generational approach to wealth building,” he said.

Text and photos by Regina Martinez and Emma Delahanty

Michigan is the second-largest producer of apples in the country, behind Washington and next to New York with almost 15 million apple trees in the state. Twelve of them are planted in Paula Camp’s yard in Benton Harbor, in southwest Michigan.

The 75-year-old transgender woman decided to start Carriage House, a cider production company, with her wife four years ago. “I do this because it’s important for society to see a successful elderly woman, and a transwoman,” said Camp. 

Carriage House produces 600 gallons of cider a year from apples in the couple’s yard, and those from other orchards in the area. It uses the state’s unique variety of apples, including Hoople’s Antique Gold, Grime’s Golden, Dabinett and Foxwhelp, to create nontraditional flavors. The company claims it uses more varieties of apples than any Michigan cidery – last year it used 50 different varieties. 

After spending most of her life as a male, Camp is open about her transition, facing adversity and the importance of representation. She explained that it took a leap of faith to transition at 68. “It’s never too soon or too late to be who you want to be,” she said. The couple has a son, who lives in Chicago, and two grandchildren, ages 3 and 1. 

Camp was a restaurant critic for The Chicago Tribune in the 1980s. In 1983, she and her wife, Mary Connors, moved into their 2.5-acre property in Benton Harbor. After years of making cider as a hobby, they spent $100,000 to renovate their 137-year-old carriage house and create a cidery. Their home now doubles as the main production, packaging and shipping site for Carriage House. 

Carriage House doesn’t get support from local organizations that have assisted other businesses in the area. “It wasn’t for lack of trying,” said Camp. She believes that’s because people who are different don’t get the same treatment – and she’s seen both sides of the coin. “I was the beneficiary of white male privilege, I know it’s real,” she said.

Working 50-to-70 hours a week, Camp doesn’t take a salary for herself but pays her one worker and one intern $15 an hour each. “We work as a team; we work as equals,” she said. To produce the cider, the apple juice is crushed fresh. Wild yeast in the skins is added, as well as some sugar to help with the fermenting process. The cider is then aged and fermented in 33 oak barrels to lend flavor and tannins for a fuller taste. 

Carriage House sells its ciders at farmers’ markets in St. Joseph, Kalamazoo and online. The company is not yet profitable, with revenue of about $100,000 annually. This summer, Camp plans to open a tasting room on the property. “We hope to have all sorts of people together,” she said.