The UAW has refused to name a particular transplant carmaker as the primary target for an organization drive, but there's a report at Autoblog.com today that the UAW may be planning to target Nissan. Since the UAW has tried and failed to entice Nissan workers before, the odds aren't good. The odds are ridiculously low if another news report is true. Autonews.com is reporting that Nissan is planning on nearly doubling its production of cars in Mexico, increasing production by 600,000 vehicles per year. There will be three separate production lines each with the ability to produce 200,000 units per year. This expansion of the Mexican operations would exceed the capacity of Nissan's largest US plant in Smyrna, Tennessee (555,000 units.). Nissan has a smaller plant in Canton, Mississippi that can produce 400,000 units. In other words, in the near future, Nissan may be bringing on more new Mexican production capacity than either of the potential UAW target plants. I don't buy the notion that this capacity is targeted at North American market growth or that it is intended to replace production in high-cost Japan. Nissan's high-volume US models are already produced in North America. Bottom line: I'm pro-union, but given Nissan's expansion in Mexico, I'm not sure that I would sign a card if I were a Nissan worker in Mississippi or Tennessee right now.
A marginally related video? of course.
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