From an editorial in the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal:
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam delivered some good news last week with a bit of information about Nissan’s workforce. The only problem was that his statement was misleading and obviously designed to garner favor during a national economic development convention for governors in Nashville.
Early last Friday, the governor issued a statement from the convention that Nissan would be adding 810 jobs and running a third shift for the first time in the plant’s nearly 30-year history. That sounds great. The only problem is that these jobs were announced in mid-2011, and they’ve already been hired. They started running vehicles off the line Oct. 14 on the third shift, which was a historical moment of sorts at the Smyrna plant.
We appreciate Haslam’s efforts to spur manufacturing growth at Nissan. But to try to crank out some new numbers at a national governor’s conference when those employees are already working is misleading and disingenuous