Mississippi Nissan workers reject union

Washington Examiner - In a closely watched vote, Nissan workers at a Canton, Miss., plant rejected the United Auto Workers by a 2-to-1 margin in an organizing vote concluded late Friday, dealing a major blow to the union's hopes to make inroads in the south. The vote was 2,244 to 1,307.

UAW blamed company opposition for the defeat. "The result of the election was a setback for these workers, the UAW and working Americans everywhere, but in no way should it be considered a defeat," said UAW President Dennis Williams. "Perhaps recognizing they couldn't keep their workers from joining our union based on the facts, Nissan and its anti-worker allies ran a vicious campaign against its own workforce that was comprised of intense scare tactics, misinformation, and intimidation."

The National Labor Relations Board, the main federal labor law enforcement agency, filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint against the company last week acting on allegations by the union acting on behalf of six workers.

Unions have long struggled to build support in the labor union-resistant southern states, a task that has become more urgent in recent years as foreign manufacturers, particularly auto companies, have increasingly located there. UAW's membership currently stands at 415,000, according to its most recent Labor Department filings. That's down from 464,000 a decade ago and over 700,000 in 2001.

In 2014, UAW lost a high-profile effort to organize a Chattanooga Volkswagen plant when workers voted 712-626 against it. That was after Volkswagen gave the union access to the plant and stood neutral in the vote.