Approximately two years ago, Michael Accetturo’s then 10-year-old daughter swallowed a tiny pencil.
“I don’t know if somebody dared her or whatever, but she swallowed it,” he said in an interview. “My wife gets a call from the school. She calls me freaking out, rushes her to the closest hospital.”
Staff at CHI Memorial in Hixson told Accetturo and his wife they couldn’t remove the pencil at the facility, but they assured the family it wasn’t life-threatening.
They would have to go to the Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, and they would have to transport their daughter by ambulance for liability reasons, Accetturo said. (Karen Long, a spokesperson for CHI Memorial, said this is a standard procedure at most hospitals.) Doctors were ultimately able to extract the pencil, and the Accetturos returned home.
“We’re like, ‘Good thing we have insurance,'” Accetturo said. “Well, about a month later, we started getting the bills.”
(READ MORE: Volkswagen offering voluntary buyouts at Chattanooga plant)
The family ended up paying $5,500 for their daughter’s care, he said, noting the expenses included a $1,200 ambulance bill. Accetturo’s insurance through Volkswagen covered $136, he said, and he ended up taking money out of his 401(k) to help make up the difference.
“I don’t think that’s right,” Accetturo said, standing outside the Volkswagen offices. “They’re making billions and billions and billions of dollars every year here.”
Sporting sunglasses, a Seattle Seahawks cap and a red United Auto Workers T-shirt with the words “Stand Up” emblazoned across the front, Accetturo joined UAW President Shawn Fain and a few dozen union members for a rally at the plant Wednesday afternoon.
Nearly a year after voting to join the union in April 2024, employees in Chattanooga are continuing to negotiate with the company on a contract, arguing Volkswagen’s latest offer is insulting.
Health insurance is a major sticking point, and the union says it’s demanding “auto industry standard health care” with no premiums, no deductibles and low out-of-pocket costs, according to flyers handed out at the plant on Wednesday.
The UAW recently released a survey of 1,800 Chattanooga workers. The union said the survey “paints a dire picture of the real-world impact of the company’s substandard plans.” About two-thirds of respondents said they were forced to choose between paying for medical care and other basic needs like rent, utilities and food.
Among other demands, workers are also seeking double-digit pay raises, a cost-of-living adjustment to ensure wages keep up with inflation, a paid holiday on Veterans Day and enhanced profit sharing that would provide workers $2 for every $1 million spent by the company on share buybacks, special dividends and increases to normal dividends.
Fain said in an interview that negotiations have not moved fast enough for workers. Bargaining began in September.
“The company is trying to frustrate them and drag this out,” Fain said. “There’s no excuse for it. They want to say they don’t have the money. It’s always interesting.
“It’s the same story in corporate America — or corporate Germany — when they say, ‘We made billions of profits, our CEO is getting millions of dollars and there’s $30 billion here in the last four years that they paid out of Volkswagen to shareholders.’ But then they say there’s nothing left for the employees. It’s wrong. They can do better.”
The UAW posted a blistering statement online Tuesday after the bargaining committee met with the company. In a video, Fain said Volkswagen doesn’t care about its employees or their families.
“Management showed us today that they care more about their profits than about making sure you and your family have what you need to survive,” he said. “And let’s be crystal clear about why: Corporate greed.”
Earlier this month, Volkswagen said it would return to a primarily two-shift production schedule at the Chattanooga plant, saying it has underutilized capacity and will offer voluntary buyouts to cut its workforce. The UAW has in turn filed federal labor charges against Volkswagen, arguing the company violated workers’ rights.
(READ MORE: Volkswagen, union still ‘far apart’ in Chattanooga contract negotiations, UAW says)
In a recent statement, Volkswagen Group of America spokesperson Michael Lowder said the company passed two economic offers to the UAW to accelerate negotiations and get a deal done.
One reverts to the traditional bargaining approach requested by the UAW, he said. The second enhances Volkswagen’s conditional offer with bigger gains, including a 20% wage increase and lower health care costs. That’s contingent on the UAW withdrawing “some of its most economically unfeasible demands.”
“The path forward is up to the UAW, but our goal remains to reach a competitive agreement quickly that works for our Chattanooga employees and community,” Lowder said.
The company cares deeply about the health and well-being of its employees and their families, Lowder said.
“Even before a new contract with the UAW, we provide very strong health care and benefits,” Lowder said. “Today, we cover 84% of all premium costs and 76% of all health care costs, accounting for both employees and families – significantly higher than the average private employer. All our plan options have out-of-pocket maximums to safeguard employees against the highest, unexpected medical bills.”
Volkswagen knows that health care is a top priority for employees, which is why the company has taken on even more of the cost burden in its latest contract offer for employees and their families, Lowder said.
“The UAW’s demand for $0 health care is just not economically feasible for our company, our business model or our one-plant footprint in the U.S.” Lowder said. “We cannot jeopardize the ability to invest in the future of our workforce with any contract.”
The company has three health care plan options. That includes one with a high deductible, which means employees must reach the higher deductible before the plan begins to cover out-of-pocket expenses. However, it has very low monthly premiums, according to the company.
In an email, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Charles Wood said the organization hopes Volkswagen is able to reach an agreement that will enable its local plant to be sustainable long into the future.
However, he’s not aware of any manufacturers in the Chattanooga region that pay 100% of health care costs. Companies will only be able to operate an unprofitable plant for so long before they have to reevaluate, he said.
“All manufacturers evaluate their plants individually to determine profitability and sustainability, and the only reason companies close an operation is because it can no longer operate in a profitable manner,” Wood said. “We hope the UAW’s push for short term gains doesn’t result in a long-term loss for our community.”
A transplant from Seattle, Accetturo has now worked at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant for about two years, and at the time of the pencil swallowing ordeal, he was paying for the company’s basic health insurance plan, which he said cost about $95 a month. The maximum plan was $450 a month, he said, which the family couldn’t afford. The Accetturos were trying to save money for a house.
(READ MORE: Union criticizes Volkswagen over health care at Chattanooga plant)
“I hope we can get this contract settled,” Accetturo said. “I hope they see that healthy employees with good health insurance can show up, do the job and be ready and available. I think they’re missing that part. If you provide good healthcare, your employees are healthy. They can work hard. They can show up.”
Letonja Berry, another rally attendee, has worked at Volkswagen for about 15 years and was previously a steelworker at the Wheland Foundry in Chattanooga. Berry said Volkswagen workers are simply a number to management.
“As long as those cars are being pushed through, they don’t care, and that shouldn’t be,” she said in an interview. “They should want us in the best health we can possibly be in because of the simple fact that we make these cars. They don’t. We do. And if you want us to make good products, you should treat us right.”
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.