UAW President Shawn Fain on Tuesday told a fired up room of union members in North Carolina that Southern politicians “sense that things are changing.”

“Right now, auto workers at Mercedes’ plant in Tuscaloosa are joining together to form a union with the UAW. Of course, the company won’t take it lying down, and neither will the wealthy, so they’re pushing back. And the politicians are getting involved. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey recently dared to say that the economic model of the South is under attack,” Fain said.

“She’s damn right it is! It’s under attack because workers are fed up with getting screwed.”

Fain was in North Carolina at a rally for Daimler Truck workers as contract negotiations get underway. The Mercedes-Benz Group is the largest individual shareholder of Daimler Truck Holding AG.

Fain’s comments came the same day Reuters reported that a petition for a union election at Mercedes-Benz’s automotive plant in Alabama could come as early as this week.

Fain went on to blast the governors of Georgia and Tennessee for anti-union legislation in those states.

“These corporate backed politicians are all cut from the same cloth,” he said. “They’re willing to trample on the rights of workers, the very citizens who elected them, to pad the pockets of their welathy donors. But guess what? That’s right, tick tock. Their days are numbered. The tide is turning, and Southern workers are taking back control of our destinies.”

Attempts to contact Ivey’s office for comment were not immediately successful.

In February, the United Auto Workers announced that more than half of the employees at Mercedes-Benz’s Vance plant had signed union authorization cards. The union has set a goal of 70% of the plant’s workers signing union cards before it will petition for a union election.

In February, Ivey blasted the UAW as a “looming threat” to the state’s economy.

“We cannot let this out-of-state interest group take away this hope and prosperity from our folks,” Ivey told the Montgomery Chamber.

It wasn’t her first salvo against the unionization drive. In a statement posted on the Alabama Department of Commerce page, Ivey said the union push means that Alabama’s “model for economic success is under attack.”

The UAW is in the midst of a public campaign in auto plants located in Deep South states historically resistant to union activity. Mercedes-Benz, along with Hyundai’s Montgomery plant, are part of that campaign.

Last week, the union announced that workers at the Vance plant in Tuscaloosa County had filed charges of anti-union activity against them with the NLRB.

In February, the union announced 30% percent of the employees at Hyundai’s Montgomery plant had also signed cards.