CANTON, Miss. — Caught among an administration that is frequently hostile to labor, a long-term decline in membership and a steady shift in jobs to the lightly unionized South, the United Automobile Workers long ago settled on this Mississippi town as a key to rebuilding its ranks and energizing the entire labor movement.

But for more than 3,500 employees who will be voting Thursday and Friday on whether to unionize the sprawling Nissan plant here, the concern is more immediate: How much they can expect of their employer in a world of diminishing prospects for blue-collar workers — not just in pay and benefits, but also in status and respect.

Conversations with 20 workers reveal a workplace bitterly divided on these questions. In one camp are those who feel that Nissan has provided a standard of living that would have been unattainable had the company not opened its nearly mile-long plant in Canton more than 14 years ago.

“Most of us just have a high school education,” said Kim Barber, a quality technician who has been with Nissan since the plant opened, in an overfilled parking lot before her shift last week. “I’m almost 50. I can’t go anywhere else.”