Tenn. Vote May Lure More Japan Firms to U.S.

Nissan Motor Co. management today welcomed the defeat of an attempt to unionize its Tennessee plant, while Japanese unions, which were not part of the organizing effort there, said they respected the workers’ vote.

American workers at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., automobile plant voted to reject a campaign by the United Auto Workers to unionize their factory. (Story, Page 1.)

Analysts said the defeat of the UAW, after a failed attempt to unionize a Honda plant in Ohio, is likely to encourage manufacturing investment in the United States by Japanese companies wary of unions.

“Japanese companies have an allergy to U.S.-style unions. A resounding victory by the union might have discouraged further investment,” said Stephen Marvin, an automobile industry analyst at Jardine Fleming securities in Tokyo.

In Japan, unions generally are organized by the company rather than industry, wage demands are moderate and strikes are rare. In 1987, the United States lost 16 times more workdays to strikes than did Japan.

The union of Nissan workers in Japan and the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers’ Unions, the main auto industry labor group, had not participated in the UAW 18-month attempt to unionize the Tennessee plant.

Critics of Japanese unions say they are weak, while other analysts say they preserve workers’ rights by focusing on the long-term health of their companies rather than wage increases.

The Japanese philosophy of management-worker cooperation has resulted in job security for full-time auto workers but relatively low wages and long working hours.

Japanese unions engaged in often violent disputes in the 1950s, but since then, management and workers have generally agreed on restraint by both sides.

“When workers calculate wage demands, they think first of all of their company’s ability to compete with other companies. Each employee tries to make a judgment as if he were the president of the company,” says Kenichi Kobayashi, professor of economics at Hosei University.

Although Nissan’s profits grew 121% in the year ending in March, workers won wage increases of only 4.8% in this spring’s negotiations.

But when Nissan lost $58 million in fiscal 1986, there were no layoffs of full-time workers and employees received a 3.03% pay raise.