Nissan Forces Two-Day Furlough on U. S. Workers

The new year will start a bit later for Nissan employees in the U.S.

The company’s North American office has announced it will furlough all workers on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 as sales continue to slide. The company also said it plans to cut employee travel expenses in half.

“While we’ve made some positive progress, Nissan’s performance has fallen short of our expectations,” Nissan North America Chairman Jose Valls said in a memo obtained by Automotive News.

The shutdown will affect the company’s North American headquarters in the Nashville, Tenn. area, as well as plants in Smyrna and Decherd, Tenn., and Canton, Miss.

Nissan posted its third consecutive sales decline in November and has been in turmoil since the arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn. Two months ago, the company named its third CEO in three years, with Makoto Uchida taking the reigns. Nissan is now in the midst of cutting 12,500 jobs worldwide.

The automaker is not alone when it comes to poor numbers, though. Auto sales across the U.S. have been falling. The National Automobile Dealers Association forecasts 16.8 million deliveries in 2019, down from about 17.3 million last year.