JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Workers at Nissan Motor Co.’s Mississippi plant will decide on Aug. 3 and 4 whether the United Auto Workers will represent them.

The company and the UAW said Monday that they agree on the dates, subject to National Labor Relations Board approval.

Workers favoring the union say collective bargaining would improve pay and working conditions. Nissan management opposes the UAW, saying it would hurt the Canton plant’s economic competitiveness.

The union says about 4,000 production and maintenance workers should be eligible to vote.

The UAW has worked for years building support in Canton. Facing a political climate hostile to organized labor, supporters link unionization to civil rights among the plant’s majority African-American workforce. The UAW has never won a union vote at any of the South’s foreign-owned auto assembly plants.