The many faces of job insecurity
Nonunion workers can be tossed out at any time

“We have a term at Nissan: ‘When you’re hurt, you’re dirt.’ They have that fear put in us. If you’re out on (medical) leave at Nissan, you’re lucky if you come back.” Dwayne Willoughby, a 39-year-old Nissan worker in Smyrna, Tenn., since 1992, sums up the culture of fear and insecurity for workers at the plant. It’s a fear that workers say is purposefully cultivated by managers at Nissanß, who know there are no checks and balances on how they treat workers.

“We have no voice, no control,” says Willoughby. “You come in, you do what they say. It’s like the military. Well, we’re Americans. We have laws, or should have laws, to control that.”

Job insecurity – it’s a fact of life for workers at Nissan and others in nonunion workplaces.

Injury insecurity. Good news, Dwayne. There are laws – laws that give workers the right to join together to form a union and negotiate a contract covering terms and conditions of employment. With a union, workers can create real security, based on mutual agreement to a set of rules that all parties have to follow.

By contrast, “at will” employment, with no union contract in place, means you serve “at the will” of management. Management can fire any worker at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. “At will” employment creates huge job insecurity for workers.

The only way to balance the scale is for workers to stand together to form their own union. With a union, workers have the power to negotiate a contract. Contractually, employment is no longer “at will;” workers can only be fired for “just cause,” which means management has to have a valid reason to fire a worker. That creates insecurity for management. Losing at will power scares management.

An even bigger problem for workers at Nissan and other companies is the day-to-day job insecurity created by management’s unilateral exercise of power in the workplace. Allen Calloway, 44, an Iraq War National Guard veteran and worker at Nissan in Canton, Miss., says, “I went to a class to talk about how peer review groups work. A Nissan lawyer told us, ‘Nissan can fire you any time they want.’ I didn’t like that,” says Calloway. “That’s what most people fear.”

That’s daily insecurity on the job.

Management says, “We never lay off, we terminate.” Nonunion automakers claim to provide “job security” because they have not yet experienced layoffs. But at Nissan, the company’s slipping market position has resulted in job reductions through buyouts, having the same impact as layoffs. Similar attrition moves at Chrysler, Ford and GM resulted in workers having many options to pick from, while Nissan buyouts were “take-it-or-leave it” offers with all terms and conditions determined solely by Nissan.

Oreaka Wells, 34, says there’s a strong climate of fear and insecurity at the Nissan plant in Canton, Miss.
“When I hired in, there were seven people who worked on the press. Since then, Nissan has cut two people from my section (a nearly 30 percent reduction). They push you and push you about quality, then every time you turn around they’re getting rid of people. They’re always cutting the workforce, but they still want the same work,” says Wells.

Those former workers weren’t laid off, they were terminated. “Nissan is a workplace filled with fear and insecurity,” says Calloway. “People are afraid to get injured. I’ve heard co-workers say they won’t tell managers when they’re hurt because they’re afraid they might get sent home for good. Most people wait until they get home so they can go to their family doctor instead of the Nissan doctor, because a Nissan doctor might put them on worker’s compensation, and then they might get fired.”

“You hear rumors about people being injured and losing their jobs,” says Wells. “People are getting fired for anything.

Management says because they’re paying us good money they can treat us any kind of way, and it’s true.”
That can change with union representation and a powerful,
effective voice for all workers in the plant.