General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler aren't the only large U.S. car companies being squeezed by higher gas prices and Toyota's fiercely competitive sales growth. Nissan Motor Company announced yesterday that it will cut 300 technicians from its Tennessee plant; effectively reducing its American workforce by 3%.

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that the Japanese automaker was in midst a "performance crisis" and that this March the company will report the first decline in annual profits in seven years.

Weaker sales in the U.S. and Japan are blamed for the lackluster financial figures.

In an ironic twist of economic supply-and-demand fate, it's believed that industry leading productivity levels at the Tennessee factory are what contributed to corporate's drive to cut labor costs at the plant.

Employee buyouts are now in progress.

[Source: Detroit News]