Pretoria - American actor and political activist Danny Glover, accompanied by members of the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa (Numsa), took to the streets of Brooklyn to protest against what they termed the abuse of employee civil rights in Mississippi at the hands of car manufacturer Nissan.
Glover and about 100 Numsa members as well as representatives of the Automobile Workers Union of America and workers at the Nissan plant in Mississippi, chanted songs outside the Japanese embassy in Baines Street, calling for workers to be allowed to establish and join a union.
“We are bringing the fight of the Mississippi workers to South Africa and the world. Workers at Nissan plants in various parts of the world are allowed to join unions, yet in Mississippi and India they are not. This is ironic, considering that America is the democratic capital of the world,” Glover said.
The actor, who has long fought for equality and civil rights, said the treatment of employees at the plant in Mississippi was disgraceful.
It was unclear why management at the Nissan plant in Mississippi was allegedly preventing workers from joining a union.
Betty Jones, who has been a technician at the plant in America for 10 years, said the workers had begun their battle to join a union in 2006.
“Those who speak openly about this are subjected to intimidation and are treated without dignity and respect,”she said.
“That we are prevented from joining a union is a direct infringement of our civil rights as American citizens.”
Jones said the aim of the protest was to submit a memorandum to the Japanese embassy so it could become aware of the injustices being suffered by workers employed by the Japanese-owned carmaker.
The memorandum was handed over to the embassy by Numsa president Cedric Gina and the Reverend Isiac Jackson, the head of the Mississippi Alliance for Fairness at Nissan.
“When we fought the Struggle, our brothers from (the Automobile Workers Union of America) marched in the streets of America in solidarity with us, and now we will do the same,” Gina said.
“We are fighting for the same (thing) - the recognition of unions. This is a global campaign. We will stand together because capital has globalised, but workers’ rights are often stepped on.”
Gina said the embassy would be allowed seven days to respond to the memorandum, failing which Numsa would return in force to continue the struggle on behalf of the Mississippi workers at Nissan.
Pretoria News