The future of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant hinges on the upcoming labor contract between the automaker and the United Auto Workers, a new report said.
Also, depending on how lucrative the labor agreement will be, the company may need to boost the number of vehicles built at the plant or the factory could be in jeopardy, said the report’s author, Yen Chen, of the Center for Automotive Research.
“Unless Volkswagen is willing to invest more and make the plant a high production level (facility), the plant’s future could be jeopardized in my opinion,” he said in a phone interview last week.
The new report from the Michigan-based center comes after the UAW won an overwhelming vote in April in which production workers agreed on union representation.
The election gave the union its first breakthrough win at a foreign automaker in the South.