Volkswagen Job Expo Draws Huge Crowd

The Chattanooga Trade and Convention Center was flooded Thursday with what will probably amount to thousands of people looking for jobs at the upcoming Volkswagen assembly plant.

The Wolfsburg, Germany headquartered automaker is in the process of hiring people to work in administrative positions at the plant such as finance and accounting, human resources and training, quality assurance and community relations.

The CEO-designate of Chattanooga's assembly plant, Frank Fischer, said "we didn't expect so many people, so it's a good basis for what we want to do, what we hope to accomplish, taking into consideration 2,000 team members we want to bring in the plant."

Many of the people waiting in long lines to register in a data base and turn in resumes said they are unemployed and motivated by the prospect of landing a job with Volkswagen.

Robert Kaplan said "I am unemployed, I sold my business about a year ago and I've basically been looking for a job ever since." Kaplan hopes to get a job as a project manager.

Beth Kelley said she lost her job as an accountant three weeks ago and hopes to get an interview for a job handling books or payroll at the VW plant.

Volkswagen Group of America's director of corporate communications, Jill Bratina, said the company wants to begin filling the key administrative positions within the next three to six months.

During an earlier meeting with the Chattanooga Rotary Club, Fischer gave more than 300 members an update of the plant's construction. He said concrete will begin pouring within the next few weeks and that the assembly of buildings will begin late winter to early spring. Fischer added that toward the later-half of 2009 the equipment that will manufacture vehicles will be installed, with production of cars scheduled to begin by late 2010 or early 2011.

Volkswagen plans to build an all-new sedan tailored for the US market that is still in the final design and engineering phases, Fischer said. The plant will have an assembly building, a body shop and paint shop. The three buildings will surround a technical center, Fischer explained.

Plans call for at least four major parts suppliers to build their facilities just to the north of the VW plant that's being built on a nearly 1,400 acre tract at Enterprise South Industrial Park. Fischer said other suppliers will be key in the production of vehicles that will have to be able to deliver parts within 90-minutes to the plant.

The paint shop that was originally designed to coat 560 to 600 vehicles a day is now being designed to handle about 1,000 vehicles per day, according to Fischer. Contracts to build the paint shop and other buildings are being finalized. Fischer added that once the plant is in full production a team will develop new standards for manufacturing that VW will use worldwide.

Once the plant is finished it will be Volkswagen's 52nd plant worldwide. Currently number's 50 and 51 are being built in India and China. The hiring process for the approximatly 2,000 auto production jobs will begin sometime in late 2009, Ficher said. The first round of hires will be trained at other VW facilities overseas.

An official ceremony to kick off the construction of the Chattanooga assembly plant is scheduled for January and will include members of the management and supervisory boards of Volkswagen, AG from Germany.