This time workers are confident that the union will win. We have "listened to the company's antiunion message for years," said Tracy Shadix. "I bought it for a long time, but I'm not buying it any more. I've seen too many workers injured and too many injured workers mistreated. We need a union."

According to Larry Steele, the UAW organizing coordinator for Southern states, more than 50 percent of the factory's 4,100 production and maintenance workers signed union cards. Only 30 percent are needed to mandate an election.

This election will be watched closely by the UAW and the auto companies alike. Except for the joint ventures of GM-Toyota in Fremont, California, and Ford-Mazda in Flat Rock, Michigan, all of the Japanese- and German-owned assembly plants in the United States are nonunion.

Since 1985 Japanese automakers have increased their share of the U.S. market from 19 percent to 26 percent. The nonunion plants have helped their competitive edge against GM, Ford, and Chrysler, all of which are organized by the UAW. To discourage workers from joining unions, many of these plants pay the same wages as the Big Three, but not the same health and other benefits. Workers in the nonunion plants also have less rights on the job because they are not able to negotiate work rules.

The workers need a union because the company's policies are always changing, explained Lee Stacey, who has worked at Nissan for 11 years. He has been out of work for seven months with a tendon injury in his arm. After undergoing surgery, Stacey is able to work with restrictions, but the company won't let him come back.

"It's a big plant. They say they don't have any work for me," he said. "I believe that if we can get a collective bargaining agreement with them, there will be jobs available for us."

Aubrey Beard, a 37-year-old machine operator, described the worsening conditions in the plant since France-based Renault took a 36 percent stake in Nissan two years ago and launched a cost-cutting campaign that included shutting down several plants in Japan.

The company has hired more temporary workers at the Smyrna plant, implemented cuts in health insurance, and informed the workers that an assembly line speedup is on the way.  
 
Job security as a main concern
Workers who delivered the signed union cards to the NLRB office in Nashville pointed to job security as one of their main concerns.

Mike Williams, a worker on the UAW organizing committee, pointed out that the union has a lot more support now than in previous drives. "Nissan workers are worried about pensions, about how they are treated when they are injured on the job, about unfair treatment compared to Nissan workers in Japan and elsewhere, and a lot of things we weren't concerned about years ago," he said.

Ellen Berman is a member of United Auto Workers Local 157 and works at Textron Automotive Company in Westland, Michigan.  
 
 
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