Nissan Workers File for UAW Election

    DETROIT, Aug. 14 Displaying a wall-of-support in the form
of boxes of signed UAW authorization cards, a delegation of Nissan workers
today petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for an NLRB supervised
union election at Nissan's assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee at the earliest
possible time allowed by the law.

    "It's been more than a decade since Nissan workers had a chance to vote on
union representation.  We are confident that a majority now supports the UAW
and we are ready to put that to the test," said Chet Konkle, a member of the
Nissan Volunteer Organizing Committee (VOC).

    "I know we lost the vote in 1989, I was there," said VOC member Mike
Williams.  "That's how I know this time a union at Nissan has a lot more
support than it did back then.  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 other
things we weren't concerned about years ago."

    "We've all listened to the company's anti-union message for years," added
Nissan rank-and-file worker 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."

    "Nissan management can try to spin this anyway they want," added VOC
member Randy Gentry, "but this vote is about us and our families.  We have
worked long and hard to make this plant Nissan's biggest success story and
it's only fair that we have our own say on the factory floor and about our pay
and benefits."

    The community has a stake in the vote as well, as noted by the Rev. Moses
Pope, pastor of Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Murfreesboro,
Tennessee.  "My hope is that the company will respond to this exercise of
fundamental worker rights by letting Nissan workers make up their minds about
a union without fear, negative campaigning or intimidation," Pope said.