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News Articles: Volkswagen

A giant Mercedes-Benz logo towers over the tree line at the Mercedes-Benz U.S. International plant in Vance, Ala., on June 7, 2017.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Auto workers in Alabama are voting on joining a union. Here's what you need to know

Workers at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama start voting this week on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. Last month, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to unionize.

May 13, 2024
|
By:
  • Andrea Hsu and
  • Stephan Bisaha
Jeremy Kimbrell has worked at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Ala., since 1999. Having been involved in several failed union drives, he says this latest one feels different.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Want to understand America's labor movement? Head south

If you go by headlines, the last 12 months have delivered major wins to organized labor.

But despite well publicized victories the rate of U.S. union membership fell to a record low in 2023. Just 10%.

And in southern states, the push to unionize can still be a grinding, uphill battle.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

May 03, 2024
|
By:
  • GPB Newsroom

Tagged as: 

  • Economy

The UAW's decade-long fight to form a union at VW's Chattanooga plant (Update)

(Note: This episode originally ran in 2023.)

Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for decades. But, in 2022, support for unions among Americans was the highest it's been in decades. This dissonance is due, in part, to the difficulties of one important phase in the life cycle of a union: setting up a union in the first place. One place where that has been particularly clear is at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Back in 2008, Volkswagen announced that they would be setting up production in the United States after a 20-year absence. They planned to build a new auto manufacturing plant in Chattanooga.

Volkswagen has plants all over the world, all of which have some kind of worker representation, and the company said that it wanted that for Chattanooga too. So, the United Auto Workers, the union that traditionally represents auto workers, thought they would be able to successfully unionize this plant.

They were wrong.

In this episode, we tell the story of the UAW's 10-year fight to unionize the Chattanooga plant. And, what other unions can learn from how badly that fight went for labor.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin. It was engineered by Josephine Nyounai, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Keith Romer. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+
in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

April 24, 2024
|
By:
  • Amanda Aronczyk,
  • Nick Fountain,
  • and 2 more
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., celebrate as results from the union election at the auto plant come in on April 19, 2024. The final tally was 2,628 in favor of unionizing and 985 against.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Volkswagen workers vote yes to unionizing, igniting UAW's push to organize the South

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the UAW, setting a new trajectory for labor unions in the American South.

April 20, 2024
|
By:
  • Andrea Hsu and
  • Stephan Bisaha
Some 4,300 hourly workers at this Volkswagen automobile assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., are voting this week on whether to join the United Auto Workers union.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Why this vote at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant is historic for the South

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., are voting this week on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. Two previous attempts to unionize the plant failed. Ballots will be counted on Friday.

April 17, 2024
|
By:
  • Stephan Bisaha and
  • Andrea Hsu
Jeremy Kimbrell has worked at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Ala., since 1999. Having been involved in several failed union drives, he says this latest one feels different.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Seeking to defy history, the UAW is coming closer to unionizing in the South

Autoworkers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., will vote in mid-April on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. Mercedes workers in Tuscaloosa County, Ala., will soon follow.

April 05, 2024
|
By:
  • Andrea Hsu and
  • Stephan Bisaha
GPB News NPR

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Volkswagen recalls 143,000 Atlas SUVs due to problems with the front passenger airbag

Faulty wiring in a weight sensor on the front passenger side of some Atlases can switch off the airbag. Owners shouldn't let people ride in that seat until the problem can be corrected, VW advised.

April 05, 2023
|
By:
  • Kaitlyn Radde
Smoke billows from the burning Felicity Ace car-transport ship as seen from a Portuguese navy vessel southeast of the mid-Atlantic Portuguese Azores islands. The large cargo vessel carrying cars from Germany to the U.S. sank in the mid-Atlantic 13 days after a fire broke out on board.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Ship carrying thousands of luxury cars sinks in the Atlantic after burning for weeks

The total estimated loss for the cargo, including Porsches, Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Volkswagens, aboard the Felicity Ace is close to $440 million.

March 01, 2022
|
By:
  • Jonathan Franklin
In this image posted on the Portuguese navy's website, the Felicity Ace is shown burning on Thursday in the Atlantic Ocean about 90 nautical miles southwest of the island of Faial in the Azores.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

A burning cargo ship full of Porsches and VWs is adrift in the mid-Atlantic

The Portuguese navy rescued the 22-member crew from the Felicity Ace, which was scheduled to arrive in the port of Davisville, R.I., next week. None of the crew was injured.

February 18, 2022
|
By:
  • Jonathan Franklin
A new Volkswagen ID.4 SUV electric vehicle is seen at a customer centre in Wolfsburg, Germany, on March 26. Volkswagen said on Tuesday it is changing its name in the United States to Voltswagen to reflect its electric vehicle ambitions, but some media reports noted it was intended as a prank.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Volkswagen Will Not Change Its Name To 'Voltswagen' After All, Says It Was All A Joke

Volkswagen of America will not, in fact, be renaming itself "Voltswagen of America." A statement to that effect was a joke "in the spirit of April Fool's Day," the company said.

March 30, 2021
|
By:
  • Camila Domonoske
The logo of German automaker Volkswagen appears on flags fluttering in front of a car dealer in Hamm, Germany, in May. One of VW's many legal settlements over the Dieselgate scandal has finally reached its conclusion, the FTC says.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Volkswagen, Porsche Paid Out $9.5 Billion To Defrauded Dieselgate Drivers

The German automakers have finished compensating U.S. owners as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. Most drivers chose to replace their vehicles, not repair them, the FTC says.

July 27, 2020
|
By:
  • Camila Domonoske

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