Leadership for the American Council of Employees announced Thursday a strategic shift in its work with Volkswagen to improve operations at the company’s VW-Chattanooga facility.
“In the coming weeks, ACE’s hourly and salaried employee groups will transition to a new model of engagement with management, instead of operating solely under the company’s Community Organization Engagement Policy,” ACE President David Reed said. “We remain fully committed to the VW-Chattanooga employees and to the overall success of Volkswagen in our community.”
Enacted in late 2014, Volkswagen’s Community Organization Engagement Policy offers tiered levels of access to facility resources and meetings with management to any official employee group active in the Chattanooga plant.
However, any interaction with management personnel under the COEP is strictly limited to conversations concerning topical employee suggestions, with discussion of particular concerns or issues related to wages and conditions of employment explicitly prohibited.
The shift in ACE’s approach to representing VW-Chattanooga employees comes amid a significant increase in worker turnover at the facility in anticipation of the upcoming addition of a new vehicle model to the plant’s production lineup, ACE officials said. The high level of employee turnover altered the overall pool of employees eligible for representation under the COEP and changed the composition of ACE’s membership as well, it was stated.
As a result of these changes, ACE’s two employee groups will now interact with management in a manner less structured than the schedule of monthly meetings with the facility’s Human Resources Department set forth by the existing COEP.
While ACE is able to reorganize its membership and resume participation under the COEP in the future, the organization’s leadership has highlighted its members’ desire to seek alternative options for improving working conditions at Volkswagen. “We are proud of our achievements working within the COEP, especially the significant improvements to the facility’s overtime policy,” said Mr. Reed. “However, the current COEP framework is incapable of fully accomplishing the level of results that VW—Chattanooga team members expect and deserve. The recent changes present an opportunity for us to work with management to develop a more productive approach to resolving workplace issues.”
Mr. Reed stated that ACE will continue to work closely with management to improve the process for employee-management cooperation for the purpose of improving the workplace at Volkswagen-Chattanooga Operations. “We are taking this opportunity to recommit ourselves,” he said. “We know there are real challenges ahead for Volkswagen, so it’s more important than ever that ACE continue to be here as a local voice for VW-Chattanooga team members and the Chattanooga community.”
The American Council of Employees is a self-representative body of Volkswagen-Chattanooga team members from both the hourly and salaried segments of the facility's employees.