1959 Volkswagen Bus/vanagon 30k Actual Type 2 Panel Van 1600cc Dual Carb's on 2040-cars

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Anti-union group files lawsuit against VW and UAW

The fight for unionization at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN, factory isn't letting up. Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board decided to allow anti-United Auto Workers employees at the plant the right to defend voting down the measure. Now, a group called the National Right to Work Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of five workers against VW and the UAW for allegedly working together to organize.
The group says in a release that it wants "to block further collusion between the company and the United Auto Workers." It alleges that VW forced workers to attend "mandatory pro-union meetings" and prevented managers from opposing. In a rebuttal on its website, the UAW called the claims "baseless" and said its actions were entirely legal.
One possible problem faces the carmaker in regards to the lawsuit. According to the Detroit Free Press, a recent US Court of Appeals ruling found that neutrality agreements like the one the business had with the UAW could be illegal if the company provided "things of value" to the union. The newspaper also claims that VW held a mandatory employee meeting concerning the election, but workers were free to leave during the UAW's presentation.

Former Audi chief designer Wolfgang Egger leaves Italdesign

The latest word from the international community of automotive designers has it that Wolfgang Egger is leaving Italdesign, but just where the accomplished designer will land next and who will take his place remain big question marks. Egger is a designer who has bounced back and forth between Italy and Germany over the course of his career. He was born in Germany but studied in Milan. He began his career at Alfa Romeo in 1989 and was named its chief designer by 1993 before being head-hunted by the Volkswagen Group in 1998 to head up the design department at Seat. A few years later he went returned to Italy to run the Lancia design department, and was subsequently renamed to the same post at Alfa Romeo. In 2007 he went back to his native Germany to head up the Audi design office, over which he assumed complete responsibility by 2012, but left Audi in 2013 to run Italdesign. For those unfamiliar, Italdesign is the studio founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro (pictured at left next to Egger) back in 1968 but which, along with many other Italian design houses, fell on hard times in recent years. The Volkswagen Group swooped in to rescue the troubled studio in 2010, turning it into something of an in-house advanced design department to provide an alternative perspective on the direction in which the group and its various brands could take their respective designs moving forward. With Egger now leaving its helm, Italdesign and its German parent company will need to find his replacement, and we're sure they'll announce one in due course. The bigger question on our minds, however, is where Egger himself will head next. Given the path his career has taken to date, we wouldn't be surprised to see him land elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group or find a new role in the expanding Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire. Then again, Egger could find it time to open an entirely new chapter. Watch this space. News Source: Car Design NewsImage Credit: Newspress Design/Style Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Audi Volkswagen designer italdesign giugiaro wolfgang egger

Someone is leaving anti-diesel flyers on Volkswagen TDIs in Portland

As if some Volkswagen TDI owners don't already feel bad enough, given the recent diesel scandal, someone is further shaming them. Flyers full of bad information are being left on TDI cars in eco-friendly Portland, OR. Portland-based sandwich joint Lardo posted a picture of the flyer to their Instagram account yesterday morning. Along with annoying font color changes, the flyer incorrectly states that the diesel car spews two to four times more pollutants than a Chevy Suburban. The author of the flyer also throws a Nazi mention in there for good measure, though they get the history wrong, too. Volkswagen wasn't founded by Nazis, though the Nazi government did create a nationalized car industry to build the 'People's Car', originally designed by Ferdinand Porsche. The factory ended up making war machines instead. Volkswagens weren't really produced until after the fall of the Nazis at the end of World War II. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Volkswagen outfitted their "clean" diesel cars with a device that would only limit emissions during testing. Once on the road, the car spewed 40 times more pollutants than it claimed. The automaker plans to 'refit' 11 million faulty vehicles. Today, the automaker launched a website dedicated to consumers unlucky enough to own the bum vehicles. Eco-warriors aren't the only ones leaving judgmental, passive-aggressive notes on cars. Like this incident in Portland, these notes often fall flat, like when this paralyzed man in Michigan parked in a handicap spot and was accused of stealing the spot simply because he drove his BMW to the gym.