VOLKSWAGEN ELIMINATING ENTIRE SHIFT IN CHATTANOOGA—DESPITE THE UAW’S GUARANTEES OF JOB SECURITY

UAW loves making promises it can’t keep just to win an election, and the proof is in the news right now!

On March 14, 2025, Volkswagen announced that it was eliminating an entire shift at the Chattanooga Plant where UAW won. This is less than a year after Volkswagen workers voted for UAW.

We know UAW claimed throughout that Chattanooga campaign that jobs would not be affected if employees voted for the union because they claimed VW spent billions of dollars to expand production in Chattanooga and that VW has unionized workforces around the world and it has partnered with unionized workers. (Do not take our word for it – look at UAW’s actual words in their FAQ about layoffs and plant closures – scroll down here!).

Not surprisingly, UAW is not being honest about VW. Do they really think they help sell cars by lying to employees or pretending they help run the business? As we just learned, in Chattanooga, one of VW’s three shifts is being eliminated. VW also recently announced plans to cut over 35,000 union jobs in Germany!

We think VW, just like Mercedes and every other car manufacturer in North America, has to adjust to the uncertain economic times, changes in demand, and the tariff/trade war. The layoff at Volkswagen is proof that UAW lies about what it can do and can’t make a good deal for workers. Why would anyone fall for this campaign pitch? Here is what is actually going on beyond the latest news at VW…

General Motors

Since the UAW won its “record contract” at General Motors in 2023, thousands of employees have faced layoffs in unionized General Motors production and assembly plants. In December of 2023, over 1,300 jobs were eliminated at two Michigan plants. In August of 2024, GM eliminated 634 jobs from another Michigan facility. Most recently, in November 2024, GM announced that nearly 1700 employees will be affected by “temporary phased layoffs” at its plant in Kansas City until at least the end of 2026. Over 3800 UAW jobs have been lost at GM alone since the 2023 “record contract.”

Clearly, the UAW wasn’t able to protect GM workers from these layoffs. Why should we believe that they can promise big wage increases without any impact to jobs at Mercedes? We already have good jobs with great pay and benefits at a successful plant that has NOT HAD LAYOFFS!

Stellantis

What about Stellantis? The UAW made big claims written by well-paid (and politically connected) salaried PR people about its contract with Stellantis. “Immediate Raise of 76%!” “Life-changing wage increases!” “Billions more in investment in American autoworkers!” (Don’t take our word for it). Talk is cheap for these organizers—what about the actual impacts? Over 1,100 workers were laid off at Stellantis’ Warren, Michigan Truck plant last year and another 1,000 at the same plant were laid off in April. 

Overall, Stellantis has experienced 21,000 layoffs since signing its 2023 contract with the UAW. The UAW’s “record contract” certainly proved to be “life-changing” for those who lost their jobs!

Thanks, but no thanks.

Union-Free Success at Mercedes

While workers at GM, Stellantis, and VW lose sleep over layoff notices – after giving a cut of their paychecks to the UAW, we Mercedes workers are doing great. We have gotten good raises. There are no mass layoffs or elimination of entire shifts. We take a paycheck home without paying dues to out-of-touch salaried organizers in Detroit. We think this is important – Mercedes has not moved any production to Mexico from Vance. Meanwhile 75% of VW’s North American production is in Mexico (and now caught up in the tariff situation)! Mercedes in Vance works.

We Need to Tell the UAW “NO” Once More

We sent a message last year to the UAW that we did not want to bring the UAW’s failures in other states here to Vance. The UAW doesn’t respect the will of the workers and is still trying to organize us. Enough is enough. These folks get their organizing and PR salaries the longer this drags on! It’s all UAW bloat built on the backs of workers at plants that are now losing jobs. In a way, it makes sense that the UAW is trying to organize Mercedes at Vance since they are staring down the barrel of layoffs at VW and a corresponding loss of dues! Don’t let the UAW dump their problems on us! We make the plant successful – not them. If you are signing up for this still then you are signing up for disaster in our opinion.

No UAW at Mercedes – UAW, it’s time to hit the road!