Volkswagen has never threatened to delay or scrap its planned Chattanooga plant expansion, but it wouldn't have been a total shock if the company had made such a decision.
The automobile manufacturer, after all, is looking at having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit diesel models made in the last half decade with equipment that fixesVW's emissions cheating software, to buck up its image in the wake of the scandal, and to pay fines and lawsuit settlements that result from the emissions debacle.
Volkswagen conservatively might have said it was delaying its expansion a year or 18 months to concentrate on the car repairs and remaking its image, but company officials said at the International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday that its $900 million factory expansion in Chattanooga was on track, and the start of assembly of the midsize, seven-seat SUV - tentatively called the CrossBlue - would begin later this year.
In publicly recommitting to previously announced plans, Herbert Diess, head of the automaker's Volkswagen brand worldwide, not only said he stood "firmly behind our Chattanooga plant" but also hinted there would be more growth to come.
"We need more innovation, higher quality and better design," he said.
Some of that, in fact, is slated to come straight out of Chattanooga when the carmaker's planned engineering and design center is finished here.
While the proclamation by Diess was a public display of affection for the Scenic City, company officials already had assured city business leaders of their plans, and job fairs have been scheduled for later this winter for the several thousand new employees expected to be needed by Volkswagen and its suppliers.
The manufacturer also recently gained the support of national business organizations in its appeal of a December union election by a small sector of plant workers.
The National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which said they represent hundreds of thousands of companies in a variety of business sectors in all 50 states, said the precedent of a small-sector election is "very troubling."
The certification by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board of the 108-44 vote by skilled trades workers - of some 2,500 workers at the plant - to align with the United Auto Workers "undermines industrial peace and would frustrate the possibility of effective collective bargaining," the business groups said.
"Employees would be reduced to micro-units [at all manner of employers] , thus reducing skills building, training and job opportunities ," they said. "The impact on business productivity and competitiveness would be significant."
Chattanoogans got good news with VW's public recommitment. Let's hope VW gets good news by hearing that its appeal on the vote is upheld.