U. S. Court rejects Nissan ban on union vote
2023.02.03 13:38
U. S. Court rejects Nissan ban on union vote
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – A U.S. labor board has approved the hiring of 86 Nissan technicians (OTC:). Motor Co.’s Smyrna, Tennessee, plant to vote on whether to join a union. This was in response to the automaker’s claim that the unit should have thousands of production workers.
Supporting the International Association of Machinists, the Democratic-controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled on Thursday that tool and die workers are distinct from production employees because they have distinct supervision and special skills.
A regional official in 2021 made a decision that the NLRB should overturn, stating that any election should include production line workers because they share working conditions.
The decision comes after the NLRB made it easier for unions to divide an employer’s workforce into smaller groups in December.
A Trump-era rule that restricted unions’ ability to organize smaller units and, according to business groups, fractured workplaces and made collective bargaining more difficult was overturned by the board.
Nissan’s case does not meet the new union-friendly test, but the board said on Thursday that a group of workers who practice a distinct trade was appropriate under an older standard.
The Japanese automaker’s Smyrna factory, which opened in 1983, and other auto plants in the U.S. South have been fought for decades by unions. Smyrna workers overwhelmingly opposed joining the United Auto Workers union in 2001.
A spokesperson for Nissan said in a statement that it disagreed with the decision but respected the rights of its employees to vote on union representation.
The Machinists Union stated in a statement that the decision establishes a strong precedent for the approval of “craft units.”
It continued:
“It is unfortunate that a broken and painfully long NLRB process has once more allowed a company to put a stop to workers obtaining a voice on the job without delay.”
