Nissan North America reports that its offer to buy out 1,200 of its Tennessee
factory workers with lump-sum payments up to $125,000 has proved popular.
As the buyout deadline passed on Friday, September 12, the company declined
to say how many of the 6,600 workers at two Tennessee plants have taken the
buyout, saying that the paperwork was still being tabulated. Workers have three
weeks to change their minds.
The company said in July that it had about 1,200 more technicians than it
needed at its 25-year-old Smyrna, Tennessee, vehicle-assembly plant and its
engine plant in Decherd, Tennessee. Not all of the 6,600 employees are eligible
for the buyout.
Nissan offered a lump-sum payment of $100,000 or $125,000, depending on
tenure, plus a year of health coverage and a car-purchase discount. Another
buyout program is planned for 2009, and still another for 2010, although the
benefits will be reduced in those years, the company said in July.
Filed by Lindsay Chappell of Automotive News, a sister publication of
Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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