AUTOMAKERS: Unions Need Not Apply

Unions Need Not Apply

The 1980s has not been kind to the United Auto Workers union. Since the decade's beginning, membership has declined more than 40%, to 996,000. Last week the U.A.W. suffered another setback when it was trounced in an election at Nissan Motor Manufacturing in Smyrna, Tenn. By a tally of 1,622 to 711, workers at the Japanese-owned plant voted to keep the U.A.W. out.

The union had aggressively campaigned for the past 17 months to organize the workers at the plant. The primary issue was safety. Pro-union employees accused Nissan of a "brutal" assembly-line speedup that allegedly caused injury and excessive fatigue...

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