Nissan North America

Abstract

This chapter examines the organizing attempts at Nissan plants: two in Smyrna, Tennessee, in 1989 and 2001, and one in Canton, Mississippi, in 2017. There was also an organizing attempt at the Smyrna plant in 1997 that was substantial enough to count as a case but did not culminate with an election. The United Auto Workers' (UAW) approach to organizing changed with successive cases. Union officials learned from previous mistakes and integrated new tactics and technologies. Nissan managers also innovated. They pioneered a number of measures that subsequently became standard tactics in the union-avoidance playbook, including taking a team approach that minimized distinctions between management and line employees, cross-training employees to do multiple jobs, paying wages that were slightly lower than union contracts but markedly higher than the area rate, offering a wider range of benefits to line employees, avoiding layoffs whenever possible, using in-plant monitors to broadcast pro-management and anti-union messages, hiring a law firm that specializes in union avoidance, and cultivating close community relations. These measures proved effective in keeping the share of employees willing to vote for union representation well below a majority.