Audio clip
Andrea Witt
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Staff Photo by Patrick Smith Workers continue construction on the training center at Volkswagen's auto assembly plant at Enterprise South industrial park. Volkswagen plans to be operating the plant by 2011.
Job seekers are stepping up the number of applications they're filing for Volkswagen production slots as the effort enters the last lap.
"It's now picking up again," said VW spokesman Guenther Scherelis on Friday. "Obviously, people realize it's coming to an end."
After three weeks, the online application window closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
Mr. Scherelis expected application figures will be released next week, but said several tens of thousands were received so far for the 1,200 body and paint shop, welding and assembly posts.
"We're very happy with the way it has gone," he said.
Andrea Witt, coordinator for Chattanooga's Career Center, said more than 980 people had been helped in the application process by the Tennessee job centers as of early Friday.
"That was one of the things we were committed to -- helping people who were not comfortable with a computer," she said.
Ms. Witt said people who filed need to remember their user names and passwords so they can keep up online as VW starts assessing the applicant pool.
Hans-Herbert Jagla, VW's executive vice president of human resources in Chattanooga, said production team members will make up the majority of its 2,000-plus work force here.
People interested in applying for VW production jobs can still go to www.VWJobsChattanooga.com.
The company plans to hire the initial wave of production workers for the $1 billion plant under construction in the first quarter of next year, according to VW.
Other workers will be brought in over 2010 and 2011, when production of a new midsize sedan is to begin.
Workers will start at $14.50 per hour, growing to $19.50 per hour over 36 months, officials said.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
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