Volkswagen to hike 11% in salary for U.S. factory workers

Volkswagen said on Wednesday that it would hike salaries for production workers at its Tennessee-based Chattanooga assembly plant by 11%, weeks after the United Auto Workers (UAW) won significant pay and benefit hikes.

Volkswagen and other non-union automakers in the US are under pressure to improve pay and benefits following the record contracts achieved by the UAW in late October after thousands of its members went on a six-week targeted strike.

The latest announcement from the German automaker follows Honda Motor and Toyota, which raised wages for non-union US factory workers in recent weeks amid signs that the union is turning its attention to organizing the workforce at foreign-owned and Tesla auto plants.

Among these two, Hyundai Motor has announced a 25% increase over the next four years for non-union production workers in Alabama and Georgia.

Elon Musk-led Tesla has not announced any salary hikes in the US. Meanwhile, the new salary hike for Volkswagen workers will come into effect by December, and a compressed wage progression timeline will begin in February.

(source)