NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Federal Labor Council is reviewing the decision of one of the regional officials about refuse a union from trying to organize less than 100 out of thousands of employees at Nissan’s automobile assembly plant in Tennessee.
Tuesday’s 3-2 decision by the National Labor Relations Board – now with a Democratic majority under President Joe Biden — ordered a review of a June ruling that blocked a vote limited to 87 engine technicians and died at Nissan’s Smyrna plant, about 25 miles (40 km) from suburban Nashville.
The NLRB’s new order says a regional director’s decision has the power “to raise important issues that need to be reviewed.”
The regional official ruled against the smaller bloc’s vote after finding several dozen workers shared an “overwhelming community of concern” with the rest of the facility’s production and maintenance workers. and is the only proper union group through the International Association of Aerospace Engineers and Workers. The campaign will be a campaign representing approximately 4,300 production and maintenance workers across the plant. The union did not want the vote larger and did not pursue it.
Three NLRB Democrats selected by President Joe Biden voted to review that ruling. Two Republicans chosen by former President Donald Trump voted against.
The decision restores some hope to unions in the most recent failed foray into an uphill battle for traction at foreign-owned auto assembly plants in the South. anti-union tradition.
The union has argued that the 87 employees seek a highly specialized skilled bargaining unit for a job that others at the plant cannot do and must qualify for independent representation.
union spokesman DeLane Adams said: “We are pleased to see the Board acknowledge the importance of this case, especially in light of how employees choose to organize under the NLRA. for a union and deserves a voice at work. ”
Meanwhile, the company argues that the employees are not distinct enough from other factory workers to qualify for their own small union subgroup.
Nissan spokesman Lloryn Love-Carter said: “Nissan believes the decision of the Regional Director is supported by the evidence.
Nissan works with organized labor in the rest of the world, but the votes for widespread consolidation at the two plants in the United States are still far from close. Workers in Smyrna rejected a factory-wide union under United Auto worker in 2001 and 1989. The Japanese-based automaker’s other U.S. assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi, declined representation across the facility’s premises. UAW in a 2017 vote.
Margins are much closer in 2014 and 2019 votes in Volkswagen grown in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where workers twice rejected a factory-wide union under the UAW.
The year after the failed 2014 vote, a group of 160 Chattanooga maintenance workers won a vote to form a smaller union, but Volkswagen refused to bargain. The German carmaker argues that the bargaining unit should also include production workers. The event led to a 2019 factory-wide vote.
Unions also faced resistance from Republican politicians when they tried to organize at foreign automakers in the South, including in Tennessee.
Tennessee has a large union presence at an American automaker: Synthetic engine The Spring Hill plant employs approximately 3,000 highly skilled and productive workers represented by the UAW.
There is also an open question as to whether workers merge at four new plants planned by Ford in Kentucky and Tennessee by 2025, with a goal of hiring nearly 11,000 workers. Three of the plants – two in Kentucky, one in Tennessee – will be built with FordKorean corporate partner, SK Innovation, for production tram the battery. Fourth, in Tennessee, will produce electric F-Series pickup truck.
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