On November 22nd, Volkswagen said that it would raise wages by 11% for its production workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A few weeks ago, the United Auto Workers' Union (UAW) won a large salary increase and benefits for its members of Detroit's three major automakers.
In a press release, Volkswagen said that the salary increase will take effect from December, and pointed out that Volkswagen USA will evaluate the salary of production team members at the end of each year to ensure that it can continue to provide competitive and powerful salary programs to attract and motivate employees who make the daily operation of the factory possible.
After thousands of UAW members staged a targeted strike for six weeks, UAW reached record contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis at the end of October. After that, Volkswagen and other non-unionized automakers in the United States are facing increasing pressure on salary and welfare.
In the following weeks, Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota successively announced that they would raise the wages of non-union workers in American factories. Hyundai Motor also announced that it will raise the salary of its non-union workers in Alabama and Georgia by 25% in the next four years.
Reuters pointed out that there are signs that UAW is turning its attention to organizing trade union activities in non-unionized foreign automobile factories and Tesla automobile factories. Last week, Shawn Fain, chairman of UAW, told Reuters that many Tesla workers expressed interest in becoming union members. In contrast, Tesla's operating profit advantage is far greater than that of other automakers, but no measures related to salary increase have been announced yet.