Published
April 29, 2024
As the Chamber has noted, the United Auto Workers (UAW) represented workers at a Nissan facility in New Jersey recently petitioned to kick out the union. Whether the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) would actually process the decertification election was open to question because, as workers at Starbucks had learned when they sought to get rid of their union, the agency is not making that an easy process.
Surprisingly, the NLRB moved ahead with the decertification vote for Nissan. The result was that a solid majority of 70% decided they wanted the UAW out. This ends a four-year period of UAW representation.
It’s a bit ironic that the decertification vote comes on the heels of workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant voting in the UAW. That result may have been due to the UAW’s efforts to keep them in the dark about what unionization actually means.
Nissan workers, however, learned first-hand, and when the opportunity came, they chose to get out. One hopes that workers at VW have a better experience, although if history is any guide, that may not be the case. The last time the UAW represented VW employees, the plant in question was forced to close, costing more than 2,000 jobs.
About the authors
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
