On July 10, the UAW filed a NLRB Petition for Election to represent all of the production and maintenance workers at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi manufacturing facility. The facility has over 6,500 workers. The petition could not only include the production and maintenance workers employed directly by Nissan, but also include contract workers employed by Kelly and Minact working at the facility.
Publicly, the UAW said that it wants a quick election and has proposed July 31 and August 1 as the election dates. But, just a few days earlier, the UAW filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against Nissan that could block any election until those charges are resolved. The litigation over the unfair labor practice charges could take months.
Additionally, Nissan could raise objections to the UAW’s petition, which also could delay the election. For example, Nissan could object to the inclusion of the contract workers with the regular Nissan employees. Under existing case law from the Obama-appointed NLRB, effectively the union gets to decide whether the contract workers are to be included with the regular employees. The Trump-appointed NLRB is expected to overturn that case law and return to the prior precedent that the employers must all consent to the inclusion of their respective employees.
The next step is for Nissan to file its position statement with the NLRB, stating any objections it has to the UAW’s Election Petition. Nissan’s position statement is due July 17.