[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 60 (Thursday, April 23, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2396-S2397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                         TENNESSEE NISSAN STORY

 Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have 
printed in the Record a copy of my remarks at the Nissan plant in 
Smyrna, Tennessee earlier this week.


                         TENNESSEE NISSAN STORY

       Thank you Randy, Gov. Haslam, Mr. Martin, ladies and 
     gentlemen of Nissan.
       When Randy invited me, he suggested I tell a little history 
     of the Tennessee Nissan story in 5 minutes. And I am 
     delighted to have that opportunity, and I would like to do it 
     by putting a few human faces on the story that is usually 
     told in cars and trucks and dollars and cents. And the best 
     face is the one that Randy told me of his mother.
       I remember sitting up with her one night and the boys had 
     gone to their rooms, and she said to me she was sad. And I 
     said, ``Why would you be sad?'' She said, ``Because I've got 
     smart boys and they will never find a job around here, and I 
     will never see my grandchildren.'' Well as Randy said, two 
     years later, here came Nissan.
       There were many faces that had to do with the history of 
     this company in the last 35 years. One was President Jimmy 
     Carter. Two months after I was elected, I was at a White 
     House dinner, and he said, ``Governors, go to Japan. Persuade 
     the Japanese to make in the United States what they sell in 
     the United States.'' And at that time, Nissan made no cars 
     and trucks in the United States, and Tennessee had almost no 
     auto jobs.
       So I took a photograph of the United States at night, taken 
     at night from a satellite, to see Mr. Kawamata, the Chairman 
     of Nissan. I showed it to him. He said exactly where is 
     Tennessee? I said right in the middle of the lights, which is 
     where you want to be if you're building a plant with lots of 
     heavy things that you want to ship around the country.
       I thought Tennessee and Japan were a perfect match. They 
     had no cars here, and we had almost no auto jobs here.
       In Detroit in 1980 at the Republican Convention, the 
     country was in a recession. Everybody was gloomy. As I looked 
     around at all the gloomy faces, I said, ``You guys have so 
     much more money than we do. You've got higher teacher 
     salaries. You've got better universities. You have all these 
     things because you've got the auto industry.''
       So I skipped a meeting with Ronald Reagan, came home to 
     meet with Takashi Ishihara, the CEO of Nissan. He was a big 
     bluff chief executive. He knew exactly the depth of the lock 
     in Dickson County. And he knew he wanted 400 acres in 
     Rutherford County, where the McClary's had a farm. So one of 
     the faces of Nissan was sitting on the back porch with the 
     McClary family, they were in their 70's, and persuading them 
     to sell their farm to Nissan and then Mr. Ishihara wanted to 
     get the next 400 acres, which was owned by Maymee Cantrell. 
     She wouldn't sell because she promised her tenant farmer that 
     he could live there for his whole life. And she said, ``I am 
     a woman of my word.'' We found 400 acres in Williamson County 
     for her tenant farmer to live on, so Maymee could be a woman 
     of her word and Mr. Ishihara got 800 acres, which you have 
     about filled up, 35 years later.
       The faces of Nissan include Marvin Runyon and the Ford team 
     that came from Detroit to a different part of the country to 
     start from scratch in a new environment. They knew they 
     didn't have another advantage. That every state north of 
     Tennessee did not have a Right To Work law, and if they could

[[Page S2397]]

     work in the environment in which they could be competitive.
       The faces of Nissan include the 300 Middle Tennesseans, who 
     never once built a car who went to Japan and spent several 
     weeks learning to build cars the Nissan way. It includes the 
     governors, the local officials, and the legislatures who for 
     35 years, whether Republican or Democrat, have kept a 
     consistent level of support for an environment that permits 
     the workers of Nissan to produce quality products. It 
     includes the faces of employees at places like Calsonic which 
     was the first tier-one supplier, but now there are hundreds 
     of them in 80 counties across this state, the wealth of 
     Nissan, the family incomes, don't just belong in Middle 
     Tennessee.
       And, more than anything else, it includes the men and women 
     of Nissan. It includes you. Those of you who proved early on 
     that Tennesseans could not only build cars and trucks as of a 
     high quality as those in Japan, but could build them better 
     and produce the most efficient auto plant anywhere in North 
     America.
       So, look at those 35 years. Look at how Nissan has 
     transformed Tennessee. Tennessee had almost no auto jobs. 
     Today, one-third of its jobs in manufacturing are auto jobs. 
     Then, Tennessee was the third poorest state. Today, 
     Tennessee's family incomes have grown rapidly. Then, Nissan 
     made no cars and trucks in the United States. Today, 85% of 
     what it sells in the United States, it makes in North 
     America.
       But, the real story of Nissan and its transformation of 
     Tennessee is the story of the faces of Nissan.
       There's no better or more memorable face for me than the 
     face of Lillian, sitting there late one evening in Melton 37 
     years ago saying that she was afraid that her boys who were 
     talented would never have a chance to get a job around here, 
     and she would never be able to see her grandchildren.
       Think how proud she would be today.
       Thank you.

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