UAW: Nissan using scare tactics
 | Bob King: Nissan’s workers are “being lied to.” |
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The UAW has accused Nissan of threatening to shut its Canton, Miss., factory rather than let the UAW in.
"They're threatening workers there that they're going to close the plant, and that's baloney," UAW President Bob King told Bloomberg. Nissan workers are "being lied to by the American management. The American management violates workers' rights every day."
The UAW is trying for the third time to organize Nissan workers in the United States. It has failed twice to win votes to represent workers at the Smyrna, Tenn., factory, losing by 2-to-1 margins in 1989 and 2001.
Nissan denied that it's threatening to close Canton.
"This is simply not true," Camille Young, a plant spokeswoman told the news service. "Threats of job loss are not part of our communications with our employees, and intimidation of any kind will never be tolerated."
The plant builds the Altima, Titan, Armada and NV commercial van. Nissan plans production of the Sentra, Frontier pickup and Xterra SUV. The Murano SUV is to be added in 2014.
King said the union is accelerating a public relations campaign "to expose the violations of human rights that are going on at the Nissan facilities in both Mississippi and Tennessee." Actor Danny Glover spoke out for Mississippi workers outside the Detroit auto show in January.
