DETROIT, April 2 (Reuters) - Factory workers at Mercedes

Benz's assembly plant in Alabama are moving forward

with efforts to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), and they

plan to file a petition as soon as this week, a union leader

said on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters cited three people familiar with

the matter saying employees at the SUV plant in Vance, Alabama,

plan to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board

(NLRB) seeking a formal election to join the UAW. The date of an

actual vote is not yet certain.

The union's Region 8 Director Tim Smith said he had been

with UAW President Shawn Fain in Alabama two weeks ago talking

to Mercedes workers who were getting ready to petition this week

for an union election.

"We're proud of them and they're going to win also," Smith

said on Tuesday at a North Carolina rally to kick off contract

negotiations with Daimler Truck.

A union spokesman declined to discuss a Mercedes vote

timeframe, but the UAW said in late February that a majority of

about 6,000 workers at the plant had signed cards to join the

union.

"(The company is) pushing back and the politicians are

getting involved," Fain said at the North Carolina rally, adding

that workers were "fed up with getting screwed."

Mercedes did not respond immediately to the comments by

Smith and Fain.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Mercedes spokesperson said the company

had "a proven record of competitively compensating team members

and providing many additional benefits" and that it preferred to

maintain direct communication with employees.

"Following the UAW's nationwide campaign to increase its

membership, (Mercedes) wants to ensure its team members make an

informed decision," the spokesperson said.

BEYOND THE DETROIT THREE

Fain is leading an unprecedented organizing effort for the

88-year-old UAW, endeavoring to unionize more than a dozen

automakers, including Tesla, across the U.S.

The union has failed several times over the last two decades

to organize U.S. facilities owned by Volkswagen and

Nissan ( NSANF ), but Fain hopes to succeed after reaching new

labor deals last fall with the Detroit Three automakers: General

Motors ( GM ), Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis ( STLA ).

Fain, who took on the head job at the UAW a year ago, says

this time will be different, citing a more emboldened U.S. labor

force that in part fueled the historic wins in Detroit.

A vote at Mercedes would follow a similar push at

Volkswagen's assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where

voting on whether to join the UAW is scheduled to end on April

19.

An NLRB spokesman said the agency has received several

unfair labor practice charges filed by the UAW against Mercedes,

but has not yet received a petition for an election at the

Alabama plant.

The Mercedes spokesperson said the company had not

interfered with or retaliated against any team member seeking

union representation.

For the UAW, expanding beyond the Detroit Three is the goal,

starting with Volkswagen and Mercedes.

"When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won't

just be with the Big Three, but with the Big Five or Big Six,"

Fain said in November.

The union has failed twice before to organize the Volkswagen

plant in Tennessee. Efforts at other nonunion plants are ongoing

and are expected to accelerate if the union wins early votes,

the sources said.

A successful organizing campaign outside of Detroit would

reverse declines in membership, which has dwindled from a high

of 1.5 million UAW members in the 1970s to 370,000 last year,

its lowest level since 2009.