Washington — Vehicle makers have battled hard to keep organised labour from gaining traction in the US south. Mostly, they’ve won — as Nissan. did when workers at its Mississippi plant voted in August against joining a union. But the Japanese company has been accused of fighting dirty. It could prove a test-case for labour in the age of Donald Trump. Unions have been fighting a rearguard action as vehicle makers shifted production to southern states, where wages are lower and laws are more management-friendly — something Trump encouraged, even as his campaign was winning union votes. It is part of a wider squeeze on workers who’ve seen pay stagnate and protections erode, sparking a backlash in industrial regions that both Trump and Bernie Sanders tapped into. In Mississippi, Nissan carried out illegal surveillance of employees for years and used the findings to rate them on a scale of union-friendliness, the United Auto Workers (UAW) said in an amended complaint filed on September 1...
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