Nissan Plant

Nissan Motor Corporation started plans to build a second North American plant in early 2000. As the automaker narrowed down the list of contenders for the new plant, two finalists, Opelika, Alabama, and Canton, Mississippi, remained in the running. By October 2000, journalists began reporting that Nissan was rumored to have chosen Canton. This would mean a nearly $1 billion investment in the state.

On November 2, Governor Ronnie Musgrove called the state legislature to the capitol for a special session to pass an incentives package designed to attract the still-unconfirmed company. Legislators began their session to pass a $295 million package on November 6. About two weeks later, Nissan acknowledged that they had selected Mississippi for the new plant. The factory would take up a thousand acres of land in Madison County and provide an estimated four thousand jobs.

By December 2000, the land appraisal process was in full swing. Through eminent domain, the state government sought to acquire dozens of different properties, including not just the land needed for the plant but also surrounding areas needed for other important infrastructure, such as roads. Dubbed the Nissan Land Wars by The Clarion-Ledger, some of the landowners would fight the process. While one family was ultimately able to keep their land, other families agreed to move out.

As the government and landowners negotiated, other parts of the process continued. Nissan began to accept job applications in January 2001. Recruited with the help of the Mississippi Employment Security Commission, training for the first new hires began in March 2001.

Formal construction began in April 2001 with a groundbreaking ceremony. In June 2002, as construction crews vigorously worked on the plant, Governor Musgrove once again asked legislators to return to the capital to approve an additional $68 million worth of incentives, bringing an additional $500 million of Nissan investment and 1,300 jobs to the expanded plant. The plant opened in May 2003, and the production of the first car, a gold Quest, led to cheers by Governor Musgrove and the nearly two thousand Nissan employees.

Training continued for workers beyond opening day, and hiring for the plant continued into 2004. But growing the plant’s workforce was sometimes a challenge: Some of the earliest automobiles were released with scratches and other issues, such as problems with weight sensors. Turnover, particularly during the night shift, was also an issue. In 2017, worker-management tensions came to the fore when workers attempted to unionize. Unionization, however, was ultimately unsuccessful.

While things have not always gone smoothly, the plant, now past its twentieth anniversary, has become a cornerstone of Mississippi’s economy. In the years since the opening, the plant’s workers have produced millions of Altimas, Frontiers, Muranos, Titans, and Xterras. A symbol of the state’s now diversified economy, the Nissan plant was and remains a point of pride for many Mississippians.