US labour body, UAW, says American management has been “culturally biased” against trade unionism for 20 years as the organisation took its campaign for labour representation at Nissan’s Mississippi plant to South Africa.
The US union launched its broadside from Johannesburg, where it was canvassing support from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) to back its view that Nissan staff do not enjoy complete union representation at its Canton, Mississippi, site.
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The UAW and NUMSA are also enjoying the heavyweight presence of Hollywood actor, Danny Glover, who has travelled to Johannesburg to back the campaign.
“Having Danny Glover makes a huge difference – people are very interested in his viewpoint,” UAW president, Bob King, told just-auto from South Africa. “He believes in workers’ right to organise – we really appreciate his commitment.
“Mississippi has never had a vote…they made people believe if they voted for representation they could be putting their jobs in jeopardy. Car companies are very sensitive to their brand image and it is going to take a big hit.”
King and Glover were in Johannesburg yesterday (30 May) and travel to the South African capital of Pretoria today to continue their campaign that aims to pressure Nissan into changing its mind on what the union says is a lack of organised representation.
“They need to know everybody in the world is watching them. We have been building global relationships. There is support from South Africa, India, Russia, the UK and around the world,” said King.
“American management is so culturally biased against unions – it has been a 20-year paradigm about unions not being flexible and not working together even though that is not really true.”
The UAW president added a “significant number” of workers at the Mississippi plant came to the union asking to organise into represented labour.
“There is this tremendous culture of fighting for justice in Mississippi – that is why Nissan rose to the top,” said King.
Nissan was not immediately available to respond from the US, but has previously sent just-auto a statement regarding the Mississippi situation.
“Nissan employees have voted overwhelmingly in the past to reject union representation, and just as with past efforts, the UAW’s current campaign in Canton, Mississippi, has received little interest among employees,” said the statement.
