Workers at Nissan's Mississippi plant voting on unionization

United Auto Workers representatives set up outside an employee entrance at the Nissan vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Miss., on Tuesday. Workers began voting Thursday on whether to join the union.
United Auto Workers representatives set up outside an employee entrance at the Nissan vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Miss., on Tuesday. Workers began voting Thursday on whether to join the union.

CANTON, Miss. -- Workers at Nissan Motor Co.'s Mississippi assembly plant began voting Thursday to decide whether to be represented by the United Auto Workers union.

The voting by 3,700 assembly and maintenance workers began before dawn inside the plant. The National Labor Relations Board will accept ballots through 7 p.m. today.

On one side are workers who say they need a union to give them a voice in their workplace, to protect against arbitrary treatment, and to bargain for better benefits and pay.

Other Nissan employees reject the idea of a union speaking for them. They fear the union would be an economic albatross, burdening an employer who pays them well.

Outside analysts assume the union is an underdog, since the United Auto Workers union has never fully organized a foreign-owned auto plant in the southern United States. But no one knows for sure.

"The vote will tell us the truth," said Bo Green, a Nissan worker who opposes the union.

The union's only foothold among these carmakers in the South so far is a local representing maintenance workers at a Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. But globally, Nissan's Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant and two plants in Tennessee are the exceptions -- everywhere else in the world, the company's factories have unions.

French politicians have been involved in the campaigning for the union, and crowding into a meeting Tuesday night were actor Danny Glover, a Brazilian unionist and a Japanese journalist.

About 6,400 people work for Nissan and its suppliers in Canton, where Frontier and Titan pickups, Murano SUVs and NV vans are assembled. But only direct employees can vote. Excluded are managers, engineers, clerical workers, guards, and hundreds of contract laborers who do the exact same work on the factory floor.

Union supporters say the United Auto Workers union can prevent arbitrary treatment by managers and empower workers to bargain for better pay, working conditions and safety protections. They point to a worker in Mississippi who lost several fingers on an assembly line, and another in Tennessee who was killed on the job.

Foreign automakers came to these states in part to avoid unions and keep wages low. Mississippi, for its part, granted the Japanese-based company subsidies and tax breaks that could be worth more than $1 billion over 30 years.

When he was senate majority leader, Mississippi Republican Trent Lott promised that Nissan would "revolutionize" the state's economy, and Mississippi's business and political leaders still mostly line up with Nissan management. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant calls the union's supporters "socialists."

"I don't think we need a union to come in there and tell us how to make a better automobile," Bryant said during a speech last week. "They can get back on the Bernie Sanders bus and go back to New York, and I'll pay their way."

Sanders, who is an independent senator from Vermont, and many of Mississippi's black politicians back the United Auto Workers, which spent years cultivating ministers and other local leaders. With the Canton plant's majority black workforce in mind, the union has promoted historic ties between the labor and civil rights movements. In response, Nissan has saturated local television with campaign-style ads and posted "vote no" signs along roads for miles around.

"It's kind of brutal, the constant bombardment of 'The [auto union] is the most terrible thing ever,'" said union supporter Earnest Whitfield, who works with machines that stamp steel into parts for the cars and trucks.

United Auto Workers Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel accuses Nissan of breaking federal labor law by pressuring workers to vote "no," and the NLRB has alleged eight violations of federal law. Rodney Francis, the plant's human resources director, said Monday that Nissan is merely trying to dispel the union's "false promises."

Business on 08/04/2017

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