is a case in point and one that labor leaders say has made multinationals wary of becoming embroiled in high-profile union-busting drives lead primarily by black workers.



The fight at Nissan, where 80% of the workforce is black, drew international attention as Americans for Prosperity, the rightwing Koch Brothers-backed lobby group, ran ads blasting the United Auto Workers, and the former Democrat presidential hopeful senator Bernie Sanders and the actor and activist Danny Glover descended on the plant to lobby for unionization.

After a narrow defeat, labor leaders charged Nissan not only with illegal anti-union conduct, but with racism. The company denies the charges of racism and illegal anti-union busting. But already labor leaders say they are starting to see a shift and that multinationals, particularly European companies, are concernedabout being seen as racist when they move their operations to the South.



Nissan has been a warning sign. The bad PR, the money lost, the sense that they are racially insensitive Marc Bayard, Institute for Policy Studies

“Nissan has been a warning sign on the road. The bad PR, the amount of money that has been lost, the tarnishing of the brand, the sense that they are racially insensitive to the community, no company domestic or foreign wants to be labeled racist,” said Marc Bayard, director of the Black Worker Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, who has spent more than two decades attempting to organize multinationals.



“I have had conversations with companies and local Chambers of Commerce, who saw what happened at Nissan and are concerned about being