Business Notes AUTOMAKERS

The 1980s has not been kind to the United Auto Workers union. Since the decade's beginning, membership has declined more than 40%, to 996,000. Last week the U.A.W. suffered another setback when it was trounced in an election at Nissan Motor Manufacturing in Smyrna, Tenn. By a tally of 1,622 to 711, workers at the Japanese-owned plant voted to keep the U.A.W. out.

The union had aggressively campaigned for the past 17 months to organize the workers at the plant. The primary issue was safety. Pro-union employees accused Nissan of a "brutal" assembly-line speedup that allegedly caused injury and excessive fatigue among workers. While Nissan heatedly contested the speedup charges, its most effective defense may have been the plant's location in heavily anti-union territory. Although hourly wages at Nissan are $1 or so less than those at Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, the company pays substantially more than most other companies in Tennessee.