Thousands Mobilized for the Right to Organize

History has show that when workers are emboldened to protect themselves and to check corporate interests, then all can benefit. The full-time work week, overtime pay, safety regulations, the middle class, and so much more are the result of workers standing up for themselves. On Saturday March 4, Nissan workers at the Canton, Mississippi plant marched for their right to organize.

Actor Danny Glover, Senator Bernie Sanders, Sierra Club president Aaron Mair, and NAACP President Cornell Williams Brooks began the day with speeches against Nissan’s suppression of worker’s rights to organize. Thousands descended on Canton , supported by two-thousand viewers online, to demand that Nissan halt their intimidation tactics and allow workers to freely vote to form a union.

42 out of 45 Nissan plants all over the world are unionized thanks to cooperation with the automotive company. Canton workers, majority African-American, have not been met with the same respect but rather with intimidation tactics and threats to close the camp. The march amplified the voices of workers and showed other workers in the state and across the US that they can stand up to protect themselves.