CANTON, MISS– The Mississippi Alliance For Fairness at Nissan (MAFFAN) met outside the Canton plant Saturday for a prayer vigil and peaceful protest.
Clergy, workers, and former workers met outside the plant to call Nissan to end their malicious use of drug-testing and anti-union threatening actions.
Melody Stewart helped organize the event. Stewart says she had to take a drug test in order to transfer from the temporary position at Kelly Services, to full time at Nissan.
“And it came back positive for cocaine. April fourteenth, the next day, I had my own drug test done and it was negative for everything,” says Stewart.
Stewart is not the first person to have a test allegedly come back positive for cocaine. Others who have tested positive, immediately had a private drug test conducted outside the company; those tests came back negative.
“But they wouldn’t listen,” says Stewart, “I’m a single mother of two. I don’t do drugs. I was dedicated to this job, but they weren’t dedicated to me.”
Reverend Mike Roberts with MAFFAN says that this pattern is seen in two specific categories.
“Temps who are about to get moved to permanent work and therefore have benefits,” Roberts says, “or older people who make a fair bit of money.”
Roberts also says that he’s gotten reports of Nissan threatening plant closures if a union is formed.
“They (the workers) have been told not to hand out union literature, or wear union t-shirts during non-work hours on non-work property,” Roberts adds, “that’s against their federal rights. It’s against free speech.”
Here’s your access to the MAFFAN prayer vigil at the Canton Nissan Plant:
