Volkswagen employee raises concerns after injury

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – A Volkswagen employee says he was injured on the job. 

Chris Hawkins says has been working at Volkswagen since December, being hired to work in the paint shop. 

However, he says he was recently transferred to a new area of the plant, which he claims led to a shoulder injury. 

In this new area, Hawkins described his labor as, “All these racks with the rollers are flat, you can’t push them at all, it’s really difficult. One rack at best is at least 500 pounds.” 

Hawkins says the constant pushing of large racks of vehicle parts left him with immense pain and began to notify his supervisors. 

He recalled, “I let them know, “Hey this is bothering me.” They told me, “You only have a few more minutes, 15 minutes until shift ends. Go to your doctor, get a note, bring it back to us, it will be okay.” 

He went to the doctor, and according to medical documents from that visit shared with us, was cleared to return to work with a restriction on usage of his right shoulder. 

However, he says things did not go to plan when he returned to the plant. 

Hawkins said, “They basically told me because I failed to report it to their medical facility, the injury that I was ineligible for that. I said “I didn’t know I was required to report it to them. I always thought with an injury you were supposed to report it to your supervisor and that was it.” 

Tennessee state law does mandate that employees are to use an authorized training physician, which is a panel of three doctors selected by the employer to treat work sustained injuries. 

However, he says he experienced mixed messaging from management. 

Hawkins said, “A gentleman came from conditioning to speak to me, and I explained to him everything that was going on, what I could or could not do, and he asked me if I had a primary care physician, and I said yes, and then he said based on the fact I do have a primary care physician he could not do anything for me.” 

This situation comes during the unionization fight here at Volkswagen. 

Hawkins says this has influenced his opinion on how that effort should go. 

Hawkins said, “I’m not against a union, I wish they would, because this type of incident would not occur if the union was there.” 

We have reached out to Volkswagen and are awaiting a response at this time.