Solidary greetings from IAC VW Corporate Coordination to United Autoworkers Union (UAW) and Labor Notes Congress in Chicago

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We wish you full success at the congress in your struggle to build strong trade unions. It is no coincidence that VW built the plant in the anti-union environment in Chattanooga! We congratulate you on your successes in the struggle for higher wages!

We know that the capitalists had to grudgingly agree to this and will do everything they can to reverse this success.

Above all, we hope that we will continue to fight together internationally for a reduction in working hours.

In Germany, metalworkers have fought for a 35-hour week with full wage compensation through the IG Metall trade union. At VW there are collective agreements with 33 - 35 hours per week. We at the International Automotive Workers' Coordination are spreading the demand for a 30-hour week with full wage compensation. The car companies in Europe are throwing thousands of temporary and contract workers onto the streets and relocating production. VW is planning partial plant closures and relocating production to Eastern Europe and China.

The giant corporations are promoting an "America First" policy. Here it is called "EU-First". They use subsidies to plunder the state coffers at the expense of the entire population in order to secure their profits! At the same time, 100s of billions are being spent on armament for a third world war. We workers must not allow ourselves to be driven into a war by the imperialists!

VW lets us manufacture products that destroy the environment. You in America also know the devastating consequences in parts of the continent. The production of electric cars is also harmful to the environment and is not a solution to the environmental crisis. We need environmentally friendly transportation systems, which have been destroyed or prevented by car companies in Europe and America in the past. It is not technological progress that is to blame for our situation, but greed for profit! The industrial workers of the world have a great responsibility in the fight against the environmental catastrophe.

We would like to stay in contact and work together (info@iawc.info). We invite you to participate in the 3^rd International Automotive Workers Conference in India at the end of November 2025 in India.

Long live international solidarity!

Peter Kunick (spokesman of the VW workers in the IAC)