5-04-05, 9:04 am

From ILCA

Nissan Motor Co.'s $1.4 billion plant in Canton-welcomed in newspaper headlines as a 'blessing from God' four years ago-is a place of fear for those of its 4,200 workers who might be sympathetic to unions, local ministers and community leaders told United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger last month. A disturbing picture of the giant plant emerged at the historic two-hour meeting at Jackson's Holiday Inn on I-55 North February 24. Organized by top UAW officials to determine community support for an organizing effort at the plant, the meeting included two dozen ministers, labor organizers, politicians, social activists and journalists. Participants described the plant as a place where workers fear being fired for union sympathies. They told of Nissan employees working long, hard hours to keep up with the breakneck pace CEO Carlos Ghosn has set in launching production of five new models at the plant. These workers labor under a restrictive new attendance policy and at wages significantly less than UAW workers at other plants and even less than workers at Nissan's own Smyrna, Tenn., plant.

'It's not salary or health benefits,' said one Jackson minister and longtime civil rights activist whose congregation includes several Nissan workers. He requested anonymity in this column to protect his church members. 'It's firing, how easy it is to get fired. They say, `Every day we never know if we'll be terminated.' No due process.'

Nissan spokesman Tom Groom takes issue with these claims, however. He said in a telephone interview last week that no climate of fear exists in Canton. 'We have very good employee relations at our Canton plant, policies, procedures and programs that are very fair. There is certainly no retaliation for any employees expressing their views on unions or anything else.'

Attendance policies vary from plant to plant, Groom said. As for wage differences or other issues between the Canton and Smyrna plants, 'there is a big difference in the plants. Smyrna has been in operation for over 20 years. Canton is a start-up operation.'

Yet CEO Ghosn's strong anti-union views are well known. When the UAW attempted to organize the Smyrna plant several years ago, Ghosn required workers to attend a speech in which he warned that a pro-union vote threatened 'the future of our plant' and 'your future.' Workers voted down the union.

UAW Vice President and National Organizing Director Bob King said Nissan production workers at Canton start out at $2.25 less an hour than workers in Smyrna and nearly $6 an hour less than a UAW member at a Ford plant. Yet for many hard-pressed Mississippi workers, Nissan's Canton wages are the best they've ever known.

Workers' rights are the real issue. State Rep. Jim Evans, D-Jackson, said workers have a legal right to organize and join a union without intimidation. 'They can fire you for anything, but they can't fire you for participating in union activity.'

A national survey in1999 showed 52 percent of the public supported more union representation. Business Week reports that the percentage of nonunion workers ready to join a union rose from 30 percent in 1984 to 47 percent in 2003.

These statistics fly in the face of the virulent anti-unionism of pols like President Bush and Gov. Haley Barbour. At his much-ballyhooed Jobs Creation Summit in December 2003, Barbour didn't even extend the courtesy of an invitation to the state AFL-CIO.

Gettelfinger stressed that the UAW is not anti-Nissan. 'We're glad Nissan is here. We're going to make them a better company by helping the workers.'