VW going national to fill jobs at plant

By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press
NASHVILLE (AP) — Volkswagen is conducting a national search to fill the most specialized of 1,000 new jobs at its Chattanooga plant.
The German automaker said last week that it is using a national print and online advertising campaign to fill specialty positions, including maintenance technicians, manufacturing engineers and logistics supervisors.
Officials stress that VW seeks to hire locally as much as possible, but the jobs requiring specialized experience call for casting a wider net.
The ads seek to make the Chattanooga location a selling point.
Volkswagen AG, the world’s second-largest car company, began building Passat sedans at the $1 billion plant a year ago.
The company is adding a third team to boost weekly plant operations to 120 hours, up 40 hours from current levels.
Volkswagen sold just under 23,000 Passats in the U.S. last year, an 83 percent increase over 2010.
This year’s sales already have surpassed last year’s.
Through March, VW has sold 24,539 Passats, according to Autodata Corp.
Jonathan Browning, the president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said at the announcement of the new shift team last month that the extra workforce will help the plant ramp up and be able to produce 170,000 vehicles next year.
Most of the 800 new jobs announced last month are production positions that can be filled locally, said VW spokesman Scott Wilson.
The 200 new jobs announced in January have already been filled largely from the Chattanooga area, he said. The additional workers will bring total employment at the plant to more than 3,500 by the end of the year.

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