Nearly 15 years ago, a headline in this paper declared, “It’s Chattanooga!” marking Volkswagen’s decision to build a factory in this community, create thousands of jobs and make Chattanooga the home of our sole U.S. manufacturing facility. Since then, our plant has grown, introducing new vehicles, cultivating a network of suppliers, and making VW a better place to work for our team.
Today, we stand at another important milestone in our plant’s story — reaching a strong contract agreement for our employees with the United Auto Workers (UAW) and making our Chattanooga jobs even better.
After nearly a year of intensive negotiations, Volkswagen has delivered our final contract offer. The offer builds on our commitment to employees and the community. It reflects many of the priorities we’ve heard our employees voice throughout the bargaining process and honors the hard work they put in, assembling quality cars, every day. The final offer we put on the table is about building a strong future for our employees, our plant, and the community.
Our offer includes a 20% wage increase, a cost-of-living allowance for the first time ever, a $4,000 ratification bonus, reduced health care costs, industry-leading paid time off and two new floating holidays to spend with their families. This is in addition to job security provisions, a guaranteed vehicle leasing program used and loved by so many of our employees, and many requested policy changes — all designed to improve our employees’ experience.
Most importantly, it is an offer that works for Chattanooga. What we need is a contract tailored to our employees and our operations, and one that supports our long-term ability to invest and grow here.
While we are working to build a strong foundation on that contract, we are also navigating some of the most challenging economic headwinds our business and our industry have faced in decades. We are confronting immense market volatility, which makes long-term planning more difficult. Rising material costs, supply chain disruptions, and shifting consumer demand are forcing automakers across the country to make tough decisions. Our offer balances our employees’ top priorities with these realities.
We are proud of our role in creating good-paying jobs and supporting local growth, and we want to ensure that our plant and our people thrive — now and in the future. Where we’ve landed is a strong final contract offer, ensuring that we can continue to grow together, creating a brighter future for our employees, their families and our community.
Now, it’s time for our employees to decide.
Henning Habicht is head of Volkswagen Chattanooga Operations at Volkswagen Group of America.