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The United Auto Workers union has stepped up its efforts to break ground in the U.S. Southern auto sector this year, with a goal to organize at one of the factories operated by a foreign automaker.

While most of the efforts appear to be focused on the new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Alabama's auto sector has gotten at least some attention from the union.

Early this year, UAW representatives visited the Montgomery area to talk to workers at the Hyundai plant but left after a couple of weeks, according to Hyundai officials.

Industry observers say the climate isn't prime for the union.

The Alabama operations of South Korea's Hyundai, Japan's Honda and Germany's Mercedes-Benz have been successful , with employees generally happy, said James Cashman, a management professor at the University of Alabama.

"It seems to me that people have gotten quite used to the team-based activities that have been implemented by all those companies," Cashman said. "There should be very little that is in their craw."

Even during the global auto industry downturn in 2008 and 2009, when all three automakers slashed output and worker hours, there was little interest in the union. These days, production is high again, with many employees working overtime.

The jobs pay well by state standards, with the average annual wage at the three automakers topping $54,400, according to the latest data from the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama.

By contrast, the overall annual average wage in Alabama is $34,600.

Cashman points to the Volkswagen plant, which officially opened in May, as a more likely target for the UAW.

"If you're going to organize, you're probably best off organizing when they're getting started," he said.

Representatives of Alabama's auto plants said any decision on a union would be up to employees.

Ted Pratt, spokesman for Honda's Lincoln plant, said the facility has established a successful, 10-year track record based on teamwork, mutual respect and open communication.

"Ultimately, the choice is up to our associates, but (Honda's Alabama operation) has had no dialogue with the UAW, and has no interest in a discussion with them," he said.

Felyicia Jerald, spokeswoman for the Mercedes factory in Vance, said the company feels it offers an attractive work environment.

"The decision would be up to our team members...and as of yet, they have not chosen to go that route," she said.

Efforts to reach local and regional UAW officials were unsuccessful.

UAW President Bob King said early this year that the union would have to expand beyond its current relationships with Detroit's Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Chrysler and Ford -- and organize at plants in the growing automotive South if it is to survive.

And this summer, King said the union was talking with a lot of foreign automakers about representing the hourly workers at their U.S. factories, and a deal could be in place by year's end.

The UAW, which is currently re-negotiating its contracts with the Big Three, has lost a lot of membership over the last couple of decades as those companies have shrunk.

The union also was the target of heavy criticism during the financial crisis for the Big Three, which led to the 2009 bankruptcy and federal bailout of GM and Chrysler.

"They have to continue to at least perpetrate the notion that there's still work to be done...that there's a growth plan," Bill Visnic, senior auto industry analyst with Edmunds.com, said of King's recent comments.

The Japanese automakers have long been the brass ring for the UAW, which has been repeatedly rebuffed in its attempts to organize those plants.

The union would argue that it was never given an even playing field, Visnic said, but "the bottom line is, I think if there was a feeling among people who work there that there's a need for organization and unionized labor, there would have been more drive from that side of it. We haven't seen that."

Factors working against the union in the South include the region's long right-to-work history, as well as the feeling that the workers employed by foreign automakers are doing fine on their own.

While the UAW wage and benefits package, as a whole, may be somewhat better than those offered at a foreign automaker, those numbers include legacies. The latest UAW contracts allowed for a new wage structure that brings in new workers at about half the wage of traditional workers, Visnic said.

"At a non-union Southern plant, I could see very little advantage of the union," he said.

Meanwhile, the union's ongoing contract negotiations with the Big Three shouldn't be a drawn-out battle, Visnic said.

As part of the concessions tied to the bailout agreement for GM and Chrysler, there is a no-strike clause in place for those automakers.

However, the companies' balance sheets, particularly Ford's and GM's, are much stronger than they were two years ago, so the union may be looking to make up for the things they gave up to help the automakers survive, Visnic said.

"I think you're going to see some degree of disagreement in the negotiations, but there won't be a significant blockage or any kind of protracted freeze-out," he said. "It's in everyone's best interests, including the UAW, to look amenable to hammering out a solution."

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