IMPACT: Nissan to Suspend Production at Mississippi Plant

Mike Elk was the only national reporter to attend the 5,000 person Historic "March on Mississippi" against Nissan.

This morning, Payday Report broke the story of how Nissan was forcing 6,000 workers to continue to work in dangerous conditions in Canton, Mississippi.

The article went viral; garnering over 300,000 views. Danny Glover weighed in support of the workers.

By 11:12 am, Nissan contacted Payday Report objecting to allegations of racism by suspending in Britan, where white Nissan workers while forcing the largely African-American workforce in Mississippi to continue working.

By 4 P.M., Nissan informed workers at the plant that Nissan would suspend production at the plant. However, production won’t stop until Friday.

When pressed about why Nissan wasn’t stopping production immediately, Nissan spokesperson Lloryn Love-Carter responded that “we are shutting down as quickly as possible.

Workers at the plant were elated to hear the news that it was shutting down.

“It feels amazing,” says Morris Mock, a union activist, who helped organize his fellow co-workers to denounce management’s decision.

Workers say that the coronavirus helped opened the eyes of many workers in the plant on how the company wasn’t working in their best interest.

“I think this virus complaint showed that you need something more to protect themselves,” says Travis Parks. “We are gonna keep trying to get a union in here. It will be tough, but we are gonna keep trying”.

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About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. In addition to filing nearly 2,000 stories from 46 states, Elk traveled with Lula from Sáo Bernando do Campos all the way to the Oval Office in the White House. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and works frequently in Rio de Janeiro, where he attended college at PUC-Rio. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburghese fluently. His email is [email protected]

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