After the VW factory victory, the UAW targeted Mercedes in Alabama. By Reuters

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Nora Eckert

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers made history by winning the first unionization vote at a southern U.S. auto plant. Now he has to prove that success wasn’t a fluke as he takes his second win at the Mercedes factory in Alabama next month.

UAW representatives at VW plants will also have to show their courage by negotiating a contract that gives workers what they have been fighting for: better benefits, improved safety in the workplace and work-life balance.

Volkswagen’s (ETR:) landslide victory in Tennessee adds to UAW President Shawn Fain’s $40 million campaign to expand the union outside of Detroit and into the southern and western United States by focusing on 13 non-union automakers, including: It is expected to provide decisive momentum. toyota (NYSE:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:).

Payne, a scrappy leader who enjoyed fighting with Detroit companies that won double-digit raises and cost-of-living adjustments last year, told a group of Volkswagen workers that the union would continue its fight against Mercedes. “Let’s win more for the working class across this country,” he said.

The Mercedes factory vote, scheduled for mid-May, is expected to be a fiercer battle than Volkswagen, which took a neutral stance in the vote.

Mercedes said it respects workers’ right to organize and wants them to make wise decisions. But in a letter to employees in January, union organizers said “nothing can be guaranteed” and that some workers have refused to join the union because of Mercedes’ competitive wages and benefits. “Mercedes has a much more aggressive anti-union campaign,” said John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University. “The campaign is more important within the plant than at Volkswagen.”

But he added that VW’s massive victory, with 73% of eligible workers voting in favor, would provide a significant boost to organizing efforts at other plants in the South.

“This will give them a huge boost in the Mercedes vote, and if they win that vote too I wouldn’t be surprised to see an election in Hyundai (OTC:). Honda (NYSE:) and Toyota will continue to do so in the coming months,” he said.

The UAW said a “majority” of about 5,200 eligible workers at the Mercedes assembly plant in Vance, Alabama, and the nearby battery plant in Woodstock supported it. UAW policy is to hold a vote once 70% of workers sign union cards.

Much may depend on economic circumstances and perceptions of job security. In the traditionally anti-union South, where the UAW has lost several battles in the past, six Republican governors have firmly opposed the union’s current campaign, describing it as a threat to job security as automakers face higher labor costs.

Before UAW labor talks with Detroit’s big three automakers last fall, Ford (NYSE:) officials said U.S. labor costs were $64 an hour, compared with an estimated cost of $55 for foreign automakers and electric vehicle leader Tesla. That compares to $45 to $50.

Workers at two other plants in the southern United States – a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Toyota parts plant in Missouri – also began organizing campaigns, with 30 percent of employees signing cards expressing support for the UAW.

Volkswagen plant workers said they would begin meetings on Sunday to strategize contract negotiations.

“The real fight is getting our fair share,” Fain told VW employees Friday night.

VW employee Jeremy Bowman, who hopes to join the factory organizing committee, agreed. “The fight has just begun,” he said.