Welchin: Stand with Nissan workers on Labor Day

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/08/27/welchin-stand-nissan-workers-labor-day/14709995/

Cassandra Welchlin 5:59 p.m. CDT August 27, 2014

Labor Day marks the end of summer, the beginning of the school year, barbeques, day off from work. However, the holiday was established in the late 1800s as a celebration of the American labor movement and of the social and economic achievements of workers.

The U.S. labor movement first fought to abolish child labor and end sweatshop conditions. Through struggle, the labor movement later helped American workers secure collective bargaining rights that have allowed millions of workers to achieve fair pay, reasonable work hours, safer jobs, employer-paid health insurance benefits, protections for retired workers, and a voice on the job. Labor unions have also advocated for legislation that supports strong families, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). All of these gains have allowed working people a pathway to the middle class and have served as an important counterweight to the power of corporations.

Today Mississippi is the poorest state in the U.S., and more than 35 percent of Mississippi’s children live in poverty. As someone who works closely with the poor and working poor, I believe it is worth contemplating the labor movement and what some workers in Mississippi are facing today.

I am grateful Nissan chose to establish operations in Canton and to provide thousands of jobs to Mississippians. When the Nissan plant opened its doors, it paid above the state average, as should any company has been given the level of state subsidies that Nissan has. Mississippi workers have helped Nissan become even more successful in the U.S. However, in recent years, Nissan has awarded workers only a single wage increase and has reduced benefits, despite the company’s remarkable growth and success. At the same time, Nissan has shifted increasingly to an employment model that relies heavily on temporary contract workers, who earn lower wages and have little security. Due to public criticism of this employment model, Nissan, now makes some of these temporary workers “permanent,” but these workers will never earn the full wages that early hires earn.

FULL story at link.

[Initech]

1. I am on my second Nissan and they've been great so far.

I definitely stand behind whatever it takes to take out the oligarchy.

[Romulox]

2. It's a non-union plant. Who are the Nissan workers standing with? Nobody. nt

[Omaha Steve]

3. “Tell Nissan: Labor Rights are Civil Rights.”

Stand with them to support the organizing them. Organizing is facing the state government AND the company.


Snip: The two movements have both faced virulent attacks. When our state legislature passes laws to silence workers and their allies or when Nissan uses fear to prevent Mississippi workers from exerting their basic rights while respecting those of workers in Japan, France, and elsewhere, it harkens back to a painful era.

Nissan workers see their struggle for a union as an extension of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and have adopted the slogan, “Tell Nissan: Labor Rights are Civil Rights.” And through their struggle, I now see the inextricable connection between these two important social movements.

[Romulox]

6. The only thing stopping Nissan from being union is a vote of the workers. It's in their power. nt

[Omaha Steve]

7. Like VW?

The company wanted a union. The politicians scared the workers into voting no. Remember?

It isn't easy. I was fired in 1980 for organizing. I know how it is. That was before Raygun declared war on unions with PATCO.

OS

[Romulox]

9. Yes. Tennessee VW workers voted against joining the UAW. They choose not to "stand" with others. nt

[Trajan]

4. Yep ... those damned Nissan workers, standing alone ...

... with you standing their watching their aloneness ...

Um ... yeah ...

[Romulox]

5. I know, right. We should all support THEM, while they undercut US. Makes sense! nt

[Trajan]

10. We talking about American Workers

NOT the cars that Nissan sells ...

[Romulox]

11. They're non-union workers in an industry that is unionized. They are choosing to stand alone. nt

[Omaha Steve]

8. UAW Says Nissan Threatens Workers in Organizing Drive

Like I said organizing ain't easy. There are those INSIDE that are trying.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-12/uaw-says-nissan-threatens-workers-in-organizing-drive.html

By Keith Naughton Feb 12, 2013 5:55 PM CT

The United Auto Workers, trying a third time to organize Nissan Motor Co.’s U.S. workers, accused Japan’s second-largest automaker of threatening to shut its Canton, Mississippi, factory before it allows the union in.

“At Nissan in Mississippi, they’re threatening workers there that they’re going to close the plant and that’s baloney,” UAW President Bob King said in an interview yesterday. Nissan workers are “being lied to by the American management. The American management violates workers’ rights every day.”

Organizing the U.S. factories of Asian and European automakers is critical to the future of the union, where membership has fallen by three-quarters since 1979. The UAW has twice failed to win votes to represent workers at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee, factory and King didn’t meet a self-imposed deadline to organize a so-called transplant by the end of 2011.

“We’ve got very aggressive campaigns going on at the transnationals,” King said. “We know that’s key long-term to the success of our membership and the long-term security of our membership.”

FULL story at link,