Volkswagen Chattanooga officials said they will suspend production effective Saturday at 3:45 a.m., for one week, with current plans to resume production Sunday, March 29, at 10 p.m.
Officials said, "This action is being taken to help ensure the health and safety of our team members as we conduct additional sanitation and cleaning procedures throughout the factory.
We will also use this time to assess future production plans and market developments.
"Volkswagen will offer full pay during this production shutdown period for all team members at the factory. Employees who are able to telework, such as office staff, will do so. We’re asking all employees to self-quarantine and maintain social distancing as directed by the CDC. We will continue to monitor the situation and will take any and all additional steps as they become necessary, communicating updates as they are available.
"The health and safety of our team remains our highest priority. In recent weeks we have taken the following precautionary steps:
· Implementing heightened sanitization and cleaning procedures throughout the factory as well as on our transportation shuttles
· Installing sanitation areas in high-traffic zones of the plant
· Provided all production, maintenance and production support staff with paid time off March 16 to plan and assess childcare needs in response to school closures
· Postponing all events at the Volkswagen Academy and Conference Center
· Implementing social distancing procedures in business-critical trainings, and postponing all non-critical training and classroom activities
· Closing general access to our onsite fitness center, and postponing all volunteer exercise classes
· Keeping doors open as much as possible to limit contact
· Limiting visitors to business-critical, and conducting safety screening questionnaires
· Prohibiting all business-related travel, domestic and international
· Sharing healthy best practices from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) via internal communications channels
· Providing daily updates to all employees regarding our activities