The United Automobile Workers (UAW) has gathered enough worker signatures to force a union vote at the Nissan factory in Smyrna, Tennessee. If they are successful, it will be the first foreign-owned assembly plant the UAW has organized. The vote is considered crucial for the UAW whose power has been decreased by the spread of non-unionized plants in the South.
See "Nissan Workers at Tennessee Plant Want Union Vote", Keith Bradsher, The New York Times, August 14, 2001