Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Nissan Battle: White Supremacy and Anti-Unionism Go Hand in Hand

Nissan uses race baiting and threats to try to stop workers from unionizing.

Left Voice

August 3, 2017
Facebook Twitter Share

Photo: Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger

Nissan workers are in a cutthroat fight for unionization in the area of the South with the lowest rates of unionization. 3,500 workers will be voting on Friday and Saturday on whether to join the United Autombile Workers. The New York Times reports that “Union supporters complain that the company has been stingy with benefits and bonuses, that workers on the production line are pressured to sacrifice safety to keep the line moving briskly, and that supervisors arbitrarily change policies about discipline and attendance.”

The drive for unionization has created deep divisions fostered by the company and the government. Nissan invested in anti-union TV ads, as well as being accused of bullying and bribing workers to vote against the union. The company also required workers to attend anti-union meetings and engage in one on one meetings with supervisors who don “Vote No” t-shirts.

Republican governor, Phil Bryant said,“If you want to take away your job, if you want to end manufacturing as we know it in Mississippi, just start expanding unions.” The fear of job loss is prevalent among workers, many who only have a high school education and are afraid that without a job at Nissan, they would be forced to work minimum wage jobs.

Unsurprisingly, the company is using racism to divide the workers and squash the union.The majority of the Nissan workers are Black, and white supervisors in line with the bosses have rewarded white workers with more comfortable assignments in the plant in efforts to divide the workforce.

Posters such as the one below have cropped up, encouraging white workers to align with racism and against unionization. The Sons of Confederate Veterans use swastikas and a call for an end to “cultural genocide”– a “dog whistle” term used to assert that it is in the interests of white workers to stay attached to racism rather than to unite with the Black workers at the plant.

no_union.jpg

Management is using repression against all workers in order to dissuade them from voting yes for the union. Furthermore, they are using racism and offering crumbs to white workers in the form of additional privileges both tangible and social in an attempt to make them feel alignment with the bosses. This is an age-old trick used to break strikes and keep workers’ wages low. Although some white workers have gained privileges by breaking ranks with their fellow workers, ultimately the workers’ overall wages are kept low, and they are subjected to harassment and intimidation. Right wing organizations such as the Klan have always opposed workers’ organization especially in the South where they have historically murdered white and Black organizers who attempted to unionize and integrate. The posters being used by Nissan management attempt to reharness the racist and violent history of the Klan and the Nazis.

Conversely, Black workers have high rates of unionization and have fought through unions for racial equality as well as higher wages. Black workers are also more likely than any other ethniticy to belong to unions. Successful battles for unionization, the largest being the creation of the Congress of International Organizations (CIO), were forged by the combined methods of unionizing all workers, skilled or unskilled, and organizing Black, white, Asian and Latino workers together in a rejection of racism.

What is at play here is a class struggle against the bosses and the bigots. This is a fight for the rights of workers of all ethnicities to better wages and legal rights. We as socialists, unionists, and activists support the Nissan workers’ struggle and condemn the racist divisive tactics of the racist bosses at Nissan. When workers of all ethnicities unite as one to join a union, the results are better wages, better living conditions, and the power to fight back against the bosses who exploit them.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Labor Movement

The UAW Strike Is the Most Important in Decades

One of the most ambitious and combative labor struggles in decades, the UAW strike reflects the growing power of the U.S. working class in a period of increasing political crisis.

Daniel Alfonso

October 2, 2023

The Big Three Are Using Layoffs to Punish the UAW and Undermine the Strike

The Big Three are retaliating against the UAW by laying off thousands of its members at plants across the country. Defeating these attacks will require the self organization and mobilization of all the workers.

James Dennis Hoff

September 28, 2023
President Biden visits striking UAW workers in Michigan.

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side

President Biden’s visit to the UAW picket line shows the strength of the strike — and why it should remain independent from him and the Democrats.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

September 27, 2023

Scabs Will Not Pass: Defend the UAW Strike With Organized Grassroots Power

The Big Three are escalating their use of scabs. The rank and file are fighting back.

Jason Koslowski

September 27, 2023

MOST RECENT

Socialist presidential candidate Miriam Bregman at Argentina's presidential debates.

At Argentina’s Presidential Debate, Far-Right Milei Got Slapped Down by Socialist Bregman

On Sunday, five candidates in Argentina's presidential elections faced off on live TV. Socialist Myriam Bregman showed that far-right economist Javier Milei, who won a surprise victory in the primaries, was no "libertarian lion" — he's a "cuddly kitten of the rich and powerful."

Nathaniel Flakin

October 2, 2023

Left Voice Magazine: Special Issue on Our Congress

In July, Left Voice held its first congress. As part of this special issue of our magazine, we are publishing two documents that formed the basis of the discussions, as well as an substantive and rousing greeting from Leticia Parks, a Black revolutionary socialist from Brazil. We also include an appeal for Climate Leninism, a debate with Tempest, and a talk about women’s liberation in revolutionary Russia.

Left Voice

October 1, 2023

Notes on the International Situation

A Convulsive New Phase of the Crisis of Neoliberalism — A Document for the Left Voice Congress

Left Voice

October 1, 2023

A Slow-Moving Crisis of the Empire

Notes on the National Situation – A Document for the Left Voice Congress

Left Voice

October 1, 2023