(The Sans-Culottes in revolutionary France)
JACKSON, Miss. - A longstanding French tradition upholds the
rights of working people—and it goes back as far as the 1789 revolution with
the so-called “sans-culottes” who were too poor to afford the fashionable silk
knee-pants of the nobility.
It’s that tradition that recently brought prominent French National
Assembly member Christian Hutin to Jackson, Miss.
“For me, I believe there is something in the genes of the
French people, in the French republic there is something that is human rights,”
the vice president of the Commission on Social Affairs and mayor of Saint Pol
Sur Mer told me during an interview at the ornate Fairview Inn near downtown.
“It is very difficult for the French government not to react in this
situation.”
(To the right, French National Assembly member Christian Hutin in Jackson, Miss.)
The situation Hutin referred to was the ongoing resistance
by Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn to unionization efforts at the company’s
5,000-plus-employee plant in Canton, Miss.. In April of this year, Hutin asked
the French National Assembly in Paris to use its leverage with Nissan’s partner
company, Renault, to pressure the automaker to step back and allow Canton
workers to decide without intimidation whether they want to join the United
Auto Workers.
His trip to Mississippi was to fulfill a promise to see
first-hand what is happening here.
With nearly 20 percent of Renault stock and 32 percent of
its votes, the French government indeed can wield a heavy hand in Nissan
affairs. Renault owns 43.4 percent of Nissan shares. Ghosn is chairman and CEO
of both Nissan and Renault.
In Jackson and Canton, Hutin met with worker after worker at
the Nissan plant who told of management’s arbitrary control over health and
safety issues, how injured workers must go to the company’s medical personnel
who tend to dismiss their claims and order them back to their jobs. Other
complaints range from shifting work hours without notification, unsafe speed-up
productions on the assembly line, and threats against and intimidation of
pro-union workers.
Hutin said he asked for but was denied a meeting with the
plant’s manager, Steve Marsh, and he was denied permission to visit the plant.
“They hired security guards to prevent me from entering,” Hutin told me. “This
is a sign that there is no dialogue at this plant and no transparency.”
I contacted the office of Nissan Corporate Communications
Manager Parul Bajaj in Franklin, Tenn., and this is the statement I received:
“In every country where Nissan has operations, we follow
both the spirit and the letter of the law. Nissan not only respects labor laws,
but we work to ensure that all employees are aware of these laws, understand
their rights and enjoy the freedom to express their opinions and elect their
representation as desired.”
As for Hutin’s request for a meeting with Marsh, the
statement said, “due to the demands of the business, we were not able to
accommodate the request.”
Indeed, Nissan workers are represented by unions at the
company’s other plants around the world. Ghosn told French National Assembly
members in February that “Nissan has absolutely no tradition of not knowing how
to cooperate with labor unions nor does it consider that it is a bad thing.” He
also said that unions are present in all Nissan plants.
In other words, given the testimony of the workers in
Canton, Ghosn lied. Born in Brazil of Lebanese descent, a British knight as
well as French citizen, Ghosn has a long history of antipathy to unions—at
least unions at plants his company operates in the U.S. South.
“It is unbelievable,” Hutin said about Ghosn’s statements.
“It is not acceptable. To lie to a commission of Parliament is something that
is unacceptable.”
Hutin said he wrote a letter to Ghosn that was co-signed was
35 members of Parliament asking the company to allow a fair vote if workers
choose to decide on whether to join a union. Ghosn never responded. “Not to
react to a letter signed by 35 members of Parliament is also something totally
unacceptable,” Hutin said. “This reflects an attitude of contempt, of political
contempt, of human contempt when you consider what is happening at the plant. I
believe they can only respond to pressure.”
Nissan and Ghosn will soon be feeling pressure on a number
of fronts. Not only did Hutin return to France with a renewed commitment to
expose conditions at the Nissan plant in Canton—the issue has already gotten
considerable media attention in France--but also protesters staged major public
demonstrations against Nissan at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero this week.
The IndustriALL Global Union says the company’s sponsorship of the Olympics is
hypocrisy considering its treatment of its workers in Mississippi.
This column appeared recently in the Jackson Free Press of Jackson, Miss.
This column appeared recently in the Jackson Free Press of Jackson, Miss.
