NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Fewer than 100 employees out of the thousands who work at Nissan’s auto assembly plant in Tennessee will have the chance to vote on March 16 on whether to form a small union.
On Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board set the secret ballot election date for about 86 tool and die technicians at Nissan’s Smyrna plant. The vote on whether to be represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will take place at the Nissan facility, which is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) outside Nashville.
The board ruled earlier this month that the smaller bloc of employees is eligible for union organizing. The decision was made by a board majority picked by President Joe Biden. It overturned a June 2021 ruling by one of the board’s regional officials that had long blocked the vote.
The vote offers measured hope for unions in their uphill fight to get a foothold in foreign-owned auto assembly plants in the traditionally anti-union South.
Nissan had contended that the employees are not sufficiently distinct from other plant workers to be eligible for their own small unionized subgroup.