Jump to main content
IndustriALL logotype

Workers ask Brazilian senator to mediate in dispute over union recognition at Nissan

14 April, 2016After hearing evidence on Nissan’s anti-union practices in the USA, Senator Paulo Paim agreed to ask the Nissan CEO to allow unionisation of the plant.

After organizing a demonstration and delivering a complaint to the Organizing Committee for the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian trade unions have taken another step in their campaign to get Nissan to respect freedom of association at the company’s Mississippi plant.  

They promoted a public hearing at the Senate, at which Senator Paulo Paim, Chair of the Senate Human Rights Commission, agreed to contact the company’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, to encourage the company to dialogue with its workers.

Kristyne Peter, international relations director at IndustriALL Global Union US affiliate United Auto Workers (UAW) presented two videos showing the company’s anti-trade union campaign in Mississippi. 

On how the campaign is affecting workers, one employee at the USA plant, Betty Jones, spoke about the climate in which the workers live:

Some really bad things are happening in Mississippi. They intimidate the workers so that they don’t go near the union.

After hearing about these anti-trade union practices, Paim agreed to organize a meeting with ambassador Agemar Santos, Director of Institutional Relations for the Rio Olympic Games 2016 Organizing Committee.

Marino Vani, IndustriALL’s assistant regional secretary spoke at the hearing. He said:

I am here on behalf of IndustriALL and our six affiliated confederations in Brazil to defend a basic right, which is the right to organize and be represented by a trade union. We want to question Nissan’s policy. We want the companies that sponsor the Olympic Games to act in accordance with the principle of social responsibility. We want to build bridges between the company and the union.