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Workers at Mississippi auto supplier protesting low wages

Workers at an automotive seat factory in Mississippi are protesting what they say are low wages and poor working conditions as they attempt to unionize in what could become a new front for the United Auto Workers in the state. A group of workers and supporters at the Faurecia SA seating plant in Cleveland plans a Tuesday march. "We work an auto job and we're getting paid like Wal-Mart wages," said Jamarqus Reed, a 32-year-old Pace resident who has worked at the plant for almost 10 years. "We're trying to better ourselves." Nationally, the UAW has staked its future on unionizing Southern auto factories, with limited success so far. The union has been trying to organize Nissan Motor Co.'s Canton, MS, plant for years, and lost a 2008 worker vote at a Johnson Controls plant in nearby Madison that French-based Faurecia bought in 2011. The UAW narrowly lost a unionization vote at the Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, TN, last year, but the union has since qualified for a new labor policy at the plant that grants access to meeting space and to regular discussions with management. The policy stops short of collective bargaining rights. The union is also trying to organize Nissan's assembly plant in Smyrna, TN, and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, AL. Protesters say Faurecia employees make a top wage of $11.64 per hour, while contract workers make $7.73 an hour. Company spokesman Tony Sapienza said that with overtime, the typical Faurecia employee makes more than the $27,000 a year that is the median wage around Cleveland. Wages are often low in the heavily impoverished Delta. "We are very confident that we are offering a very competitive wage," Sapienza said. Organizers criticize use of lower-paid contract workers Shannon Greenidge, a 44-year-old Cleveland resident, said she worked for a labor agency for more than two years before being hired directly by Faurecia. Greenidge said she makes $9.29 an hour, and can't save for retirement or to send her 11-year-old daughter to college. "That's not going to help me down the line in life," she said. Union supporters say as many as half the workers at the plant work for a contract-labor agency. Sapienza said that while the number varies, the company expects 15 percent of its workforce will be temporary employees this year. The UAW has organized some Southern auto parts plants in recent years, including Faurecia plants in Cottondale, Alabama, in 2012 and Louisville, Kentucky in 2013.

Nissan GT-R takes a bloody whack at supercar rivals in fake ads

A big part of what makes a supercar super is how it makes you feel, but the performance stats and bragging rights are undeniably a big part of the equation as well. Which means you can't ignore the fact that, even with its price ever escalating, the Nissan GT-R makes minced meat out of European exotics costing twice or three times as much.
That's the inspiration for this trio of fake ads from photographer Tim Kent. In this mock campaign, Kent has depicted the GT-R as a butcher's knife and the European exotics as pieces of slaughtered meat. Ferrari is symbolized by a package of horse meat, Porsche by a pack of sausages and Lamborghini as a pair of, um... "prairie oysters".
Of course the ads are never going to run anywhere, and if you're squeamish (or vegetarian) we wouldn't suggest looking at them in close proximity to your lunch. But we have to admit they're creative, and effective.

Nissan's NY taxi deal faces court obstacles

Nissan scored a big win for itself when the NV200 was named New York City's Taxi of Tomorrow, but the compact van has been under attack ever since. The latest setback for Nissan comes from the New York Supreme Court, which has reportedly ruled the deal between NYC and Nissan is "null, void and unenforceable" since the NV200 is not a hybrid - one of the key parts of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Taxi of Tomorrow plan.
The NV200 Taxi launches this October. Although Nissan says it is bringing a hybrid version of the van to market in 2015, the New York Supreme Court ruled against Nissan, which opens the door for taxi companies in NYC to drive non-Nissan hybrid vehicles. Despite this setback, it doesn't sound like this ruling will affect the NV200 becoming the official taxi of NYC as a part of the 10-year contract worth an estimated $1 billion.