Automaker skips meetings to discuss workplace injury
Mother of 10 terminated by Nissan

Yvette Taylor, a 46-year-old mother of 10 children, started working at Nissan in Canton, Miss., in 2004.  Her career at the company lasted less than three years.

One day while on the line doing body work at Nissan in September 2006, she tore the meniscus in her knee and had to be carried to her car to go home.

The next day, she was ordered by Nissan to report back to their clinic to get a knee brace and crutches.  When she arrived, they didn’t have a knee brace.  Instead, they wrapped her knee in an ace bandage, gave her crutches and told her to go back to work immediately – and without her crutches because they’re not allowed on the shop floor. 

Taylor worked for another two weeks, standing on the job wearing a brace that wasn’t adequate for standing while she worked on fenders.   They promised her a more appropriate work assignment.  But three days later, a company doctor “told me it wasn’t a meniscus tear, but arthritis.  I’ve never had arthritis in my life.  He put me in a brace, assigned me to physical therapy and sent me back to the shop floor that same day to continue working!” says Taylor.

“A week later, Nissan asked me if I had ever been in a car accident and if there had been a settlement. I said yes and they sent me home.  Over the next week, they scheduled two meetings saying they wanted to discuss this with me, but never showed up for the meetings.  That week, I got a letter at home telling me I was fired because I didn’t tell them about a car accident I was in, an accident that was unrelated to my job when I was hired and no reason to tell them about.” 

Since then, she has been on worker’s compensation, had surgery and her knee is no better since the day she injured it.  She needs a second surgery, according to Nissan’s doctor, but her Nissan benefits have been canceled by the company.  

“All I wanted was to be fixed and go back to work.  I’m struggling to pay my bills.”  She limps, her knee is swollen and, “I’m no better than the day I got my first surgery. In fact, I’ve fallen several times because of my knee problem.  I’m angry.  All I ever wanted to do was work and have them take care of me so I could go back to work to be the good employee that I was,” says Taylor.