A Nissan Victory Could Usher in a New Era of Southern Organizing

"The United Automobile Workers union and its allies in the labor and civil-rights movements have been organizing for years to get a union at the sprawling Nissan Motor Company vehicle assembly facility in Canton, Mississippi. But most Americans became aware of the struggle only this year, when Senator Bernie Sanders, actor Danny Glover, and NAACP President Cornell William Brooks joined union activists and labor leaders for a ‘March on Mississippi’ that sought to highlight abuses of worker and civil rights at the factory.

Despite taking place in a community of just 13,189, the March 4 show of solidarity was one of one of the largest rallies Mississippi has seen in years.

An estimated 5,000 labor and civil-rights activists undertook an urgent mission to highlight unsafe working conditions and mistreatment of workers at the plant where an overwhelming majority of workers are African Americans. It called on Nissan to stop resisting union organizing efforts, and to allow a free and fair vote on whether workers can exercise their right to collectively bargain.

A Nissan Victory Could Usher in a New Era of Southern Organizing: