Tennessee State Sen. Bo WatsonNASHVILLE – He still takes issue with Volkswagen’s neutrality toward labor unions, but Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said Thursday he will back Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed $165.8 million incentive package for the auto manufacturer’s Chattanooga plant expansion.
“It’ll be part of the budget,” said Watson, the Senate speaker pro tempore, who grilled top Volkswagen officials during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday and called the German company’s policies a “magnet for organized labor.”
The lawmaker, whose district includes the Volkswagen plant, abstained in the Commerce Committee from voting on the Department of Economic and Community Development’s proposed budget. The agency’s budget included the incentives for adding a second production line to build SUVs.
Watson told colleagues that VW’s investment in Chattanooga has “been nothing but transformational” and the impact “mostly from the positive.”
But he also asked David Geanacopoulos, Volkswagen of America’s general counsel, about the company’s labor policies.