Nissan Wants Union Issue Settled by Summer Break
Nissan set the stage Monday for an early showdown with the United Auto Workers. The Japanese company said it wants the union organizing election at its Smyrna, Tenn., complex held before the end of June.
Nissan officials said they told the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that supervises organizing elections, on Monday that they will not attempt to delay the voting until after the Smyrna plant shuts down for the summer in July.
“We want an early election,” said Gail Neuman, Nissan’s general counsel and vice president of human resources.
UAW officials, who last Thursday filed a petition with the labor board calling for an election, also said Monday that they want the voting to take place as soon as possible. “Our in-plant organizing committee feels it’s time for an election,” said Maxie Irwin, a spokesman for the UAW in Smyrna. The union claims it already has the support of a majority of the Nissan workers.
Nissan and the UAW also apparently will be able to reach a quick agreement with the labor board on the other major issue that must be resolved before the election, that is, which workers will be eligible to vote. Both sides now say there are 2,400 workers who can vote and potentially be represented by the union.
A UAW victory at Nissan would represent a major step forward in the union’s efforts to organize the new and expanding Japanese auto operations in this country.
The UAW now represents the workers at three Japanese-managed assembly plants here, but all of those victories have come without a fight--at plants with established ties to the Big Three auto makers.
Easy Recognition
The union was able to use its influence with Detroit car makers to gain nearly automatic recognition at the GM-Toyota joint venture in Fremont, the Diamond-Star joint venture between Chrysler and Mitsubishi in Illinois, and at the Mazda plant in Michigan, where a majority of the car output goes to Ford, which owns 25% of the Japanese auto maker.
A triumph at Nissan would thus mark the first time the UAW has been able to win a contested organizing campaign with a Japanese auto maker. With so much at stake, the UAW is pouring resources into Smyrna. It has six organizers there already.
Nissan, on the other hand, plans to fight hard to keep the UAW out, for fear that union representation would disrupt its Japanese-style “team” approach to labor relations.
The two sides began gearing up for a hot campaign with a bitter war of words on Monday, leaving no doubt that both the company and the union know how much is at stake in the election.
Claims Rifts in Teams
Neuman attacked the union Monday, saying the UAW campaign has already caused divisions between pro-union and anti-union workers in the plant. She said morale is low and added that Nissan’s team concept has been damaged because in-plant teams are split over the union vote.
“We think it is disrupting our plant,” said Neuman. “We find our employees are now in two different camps instead of working together. We need to fight the competition, not each other.”
She said that some pro-union workers are refusing to help their teammates on the assembly line unless they sign union cards. “It’s reached a point where we have two sides to the team, instead of one family,” Neuman said.
