The Rev. Jesse Jackson recalled Wednesday when Big 10 football coaches came south and recruited top athletes shut out of colleges in the region because of their color.
He said Volkswagen’s “big tent approach” to recruiting minority vendors and workers will keep a lot of talent in the Chattanooga area.
“We should no longer lose any great Southern talent to the North,” said Mr. Jackson, who held talks with local officials for the German automaker and visited a VW minority trade show at the Convention Center.
Tom Loafman, Volkswagen Group of America’s director of purchasing, said VW has reached its pre-production goal of signing minorities to supply more than 5 percent of the components going into the car to be made here.
“We’re still pushing to increase that number,” he said. VW is to start production in early 2011 at its $1 billion Chattanooga plant.
Mr. Jackson, 68, on his second visit with VW officials in about a year, cited the carmaker’s production of environmentally friendly vehicles.
“Making cars efficient is the way of the future,” he said.
Also, Mr. Jackson, who launched the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, cited the city’s efforts for a high-speed train between Chattanooga and Atlanta.
“We need more mass transportation,” he said. “Americans can make the steel, lay the rail, build buses and trains such as they build cars.”
Mayor Ron Littlefield said “clean and green” is a Chattanooga attitude and philosophy.
“VW is very much in keeping with that,” he said.
Among those attending the trade show was Roger Reynolds, president of Louisville, Ky.-based logistics provider the Reynolds Group.
He said he hopes to garner VW business and, if successful, could eventually employ people in Chattanooga.
VW GOALS* 10 percent of plant construction placed with minority suppliers.* 5 percent of vehicle components coming from minority outfits by 2011* 10 percent of components from minority firms by 2015
“I want to supply VW. That’s our goal,” Mr. Reynolds said.
Dave Mixon of Gallatin, Tenn.-based ABC Group, a supplier of interior pieces for the new midsize sedan, said he was in Chattanooga to increase its minority supply base.
“This is a perfect venue,” he said.
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