Transcript of the video:

Good evening, UAW VW family!

I’m sitting here with Vice President Chuck Browning and your elected bargaining team and we just got done meeting with the company.

It was almost one year ago that the workers here in Chattanooga won their union.

Like many people, I wanted to believe VW management when they said they are a different kind of company.

When they claim that they don’t oppose unions and they believe in the right of workers to have a voice and rights in the workplace. It turns out that my hopes in Volkswagen management was just wishful thinking.

This employer is no different from any other we deal with. And after meeting with the company today, it is abundantly clear: Volkswagen doesn’t give a damn about you or your families.

Management showed us today that they care more about their profits than about making sure you and your family have what you need to survive.

And let’s be crystal clear about why: CORPORATE GREED.

Management didn’t want to hear it, but today this bargaining team gave them the hard truth. Straight from the nearly 1,800 workers who completed our health care survey.

And that truth is devastating: One in three VW employees struggles to afford Volkswagen’s garbage health insurance.

Nearly three out of four have had to choose between getting medical care or paying for rent and food. Three out of four!

More than half of VW employees have been driven into debt, drained their savings, or even filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses.

One in five VW employees have had to take a second job just to afford medical bills.

One inf five VW workers rely on publicly-funded TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, to insure their children.

And this is happening at a company that raked in $20.6 BILLION in profit last year.

A company that paid their CEO $11 MILLION last year.

Think about this: under VW’s current offer, it would take the highest-paid production worker in Chattanooga 163 YEARS to make what the VW CEO makes in just one year.

But Volkswagen doesn’t just lavish profits on company executives, there is also plenty to go around for rich shareholders.

In fact, Volkswagen has shoveled $30 BILLION into shareholders’ pockets over the last four years through stock buyback schemes and dividends.

Volkswagen has billions for rich shareholders.

They have millions for company executives.

But when it comes time to take care of the workers who produce the profits and the products, suddenly management claims there is nothing left.

Here is the hard truth: Volkswagen has raked in $92.4 billion in profits over four years, while Chattanooga workers face bankruptcy, eviction and medical debt just to survive.

That is not just corporate greed.

That is theft. That is abuse. That is a disgrace.

And as if that weren’t disgusting enough, Volkswagen has now decided to spit in the faces of the men and women who have served this country.

They refuse to give us a paid day off for Veterans Day.

Let that sink in.

Volkswagen is now outright refusing to honor those who fought for this country, including the memory of those brave American soldiers who died 80 years ago liberating Volkswagen’s Wolfsberg factory from the Nazis.

Shame on them. Shame on their greed. Shame on their hypocrisy.

VW management is out of control. They don’t give a damn about following the laws in our country.

For weeks, our bargaining team was meeting with them to bargain over any decision to cut a shift at the plant.

Then VW management illegally reversed course and unilaterally implemented a shift reduction and buyout package without reaching any agreement with the UAW bargaining team.

Let’s be clear: this bargaining team was elected by their coworkers to negotiate with this company in good faith. When VW lies to their faces, they are lying to their employees. When management disrespects this team, they are disrespecting all of you.

Management knows that they are required by law to negotiate with us on any proposed layoffs, shift reductions, and buyouts. But instead of following the law and bargaining in good faith, management has chosen to do whatever the hell they want. That’s illegal, and we won’t stand for it—which is why we’ve filed charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board.

Volkswagen isn’t just breaking the law in Chattanooga, they are breaking the law in New Jersey, where 180 workers in Volkswagen’s parts depot are fighting to win their union. Volkswagen tells the world that they respect the rights of workers to unionize.

In fact, the company’s official policy is to remain neutral during union organizing drives.

But once again, what Volkswagen says publicly is different from how they act privately.

To be blunt, they LIE!

Management in New Jersey have waged a full-scale war against their employees—breaking the law over and over again.

Management has spied on union meetings.

They have fired key organizers.

They have threatened workers with firings and lost wages if they vote yes.

They’ve handed out retaliatory write-ups, and they’ve flooded workers with corporate propaganda through daily captive audience meetings.

And while management in Chattanooga is telling us they can’t find the money to cover healthcare for their employees, they’ve found plenty of of money to hire six outside union busters in New Jersey—including the same union busters that Mercedes used in Alabama.

That is CORPORATE TERRORISM.

Like the VW workers in Chattanooga, the Volkswagen employees in New Jersey are standing strong and fighting back.

Here is what VW is NOT telling you in the propaganda videos being pumped out by their bargaining team in Chattanooga. Management does NOT respect you.

Volkswagen does NOT respect American workers.

Volkswagen does NOT give a damn about breaking the law.

And we are making sure those in power hear us loud and clear.

Right now, we are meeting with the Trump administration and the Commerce Department to discuss auto tariffs—and we have raised VW directly with them. VW makes 75% of their North American production in Mexico—the most of any automaker. They are cutting a shift here while paying workers $7 an hour in Mexico. That is an insult to this country as well as to the hardworking auto workers in Mexico and Germany. And we will not stand for it. We will not be ignored.
We will not be disrespected.
We will not be silenced.

And we damn sure will not back down until Volkswagen gives us the contract we deserve! Not tomorrow. Not next year. NOW!

VW management thinks we are weak. They think they can divide us. They think can scare us into submission.

But WE are NOT going to let that happen. We are going to prove them wrong.

We are going to continue fighting for industry-standard health care. fair wages. Respect. The right to organize without being terrorized.

And we are demanding these things NOW

Volkswagen thinks they can break us.


Volkswagen thinks we’ll back down.

Volkswagen is WRONG.

We are strong. We are united. We are unstoppable. And we WILL WIN.

WHEN WE FIGHT? WE WIN!