Nissan Workers Lament Move
Shortly after Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday that it would relocate its North American headquarters from Gardena to Tennessee, the challenges facing the Japanese automaker became evident.
Several employees said that they had no intention of moving and that few of their co-workers would leave either.
"I'm not going to Tennessee," one woman said.
A few hours after the 9 a.m. announcement, a dozen workers from Nissan's marketing department gathered at the nearby Paradise Restaurant, some sipping Bloody Marys and nibbling from plates of fresh fruit.
"I really think what we're doing here is sort of mourning the brand," one said. "We hope that everything we've worked for here will not be lost."
Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the Japanese automaker, which set up shop in Southern California in 1958, would spend more than $70 million to build a corporate headquarters complex in Franklin, about 15 miles southwest of Nashville.
Ghosn said the widely anticipated decision was prompted chiefly by cheaper real estate and lower business taxes.
"The costs of doing business in Southern California are much higher than the costs of doing business in Tennessee," he said.
Ghosn announced the move in a Nashville news conference with Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, who had been wooing the automaker for months. Tennessee officials offered Nissan an incentive package, probably including tax breaks and other credits, but did not reveal details.
"Automakers cheer if they can cut even $1 from the cost of building a car, so any savings from a move like this helps it make sense," said Kim Hill, an analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
A California "strike team" attempted to persuade Nissan to stay put, offering income tax credits, an expanded enterprise zone, favorable utility rates and a state grant for training current employees.
"This is a big loss," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a member of the team.
Nissan employees will start moving to Tennessee in May or June.
Workers at Nissan's 43-acre corporate headquarters in Gardena heard the announcement on a closed-circuit television broadcast.
"It was spooky silent for the first few minutes" as Ghosn spoke, said one mid-level manager who -- like other employees who spoke about the move -- asked to remain unidentified for fear of job repercussions. "We've been expecting this for a couple of months now, so it wasn't a shock, but it wasn't good news."
