Nissan Workers Reject UAW Vote

Hourly workers at Nissan Motor Co.’s assembly plant in Canton, Miss., have rejected the United Auto Workers union as their representative by a hefty 63:37 margin. More than 3,500 workers cast ballots.

The Friday vote came amid UAW claims that Nissan harassed pro-union employees and suggested to workers that the plant might close if they chose to unionize. The facility makes Murano SUVs, commercial vans and midsize and full-size pickup trucks.

The vote again thwarted the UAW from organizing its first large foreign-owned assembly plant in the South. A vote in February 2014 to unionize Volkswagen AG’s factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., lost by 86 votes among more than 1,300 cast. The union later won the right to represent about 160 skilled trade maintenance workers there.

The UAW praised VW’s management for allowing a “free and open atmosphere” during the process. The mood was more combative in Mississippi. The UAW concedes the Nissan election was a setback but refuses to describe it as a defeat. Nissan suggests the union “cease their efforts to divide our Nissan family.”