Volkswagen mulls South for next auto plant

He said automakers "don't want to be competitive with someone who is a high-paying employer."

Honda spokesman Ted Pratt said Volkswagen or anybody coming into the area "will find what we found: a great quality of life and a great work force."

Honda set up operations in east Alabama in 2001, and the assembly plant Kia Motors Corp. plans for West Point, Ga., will be about 100 miles away. Two likely Volkswagen plant sites in Chattanooga and Huntsville, Ala., also are about 100 miles from the Honda plant.

Pratt said the plants seem "spread apart far enough so we are not pulling from the same labor pool."

Spokesmen with Nissan Motor Co.'s North American plant in Nashville, BMW AG's plant in Greer, S.C., and Honda Motor Co.'s Lincoln, Ala., factory also said their companies have no reason to worry about the region becoming crowded with automaking.

Nissan spokesman Fred Standish said competitors' locations haven't factored into Nissan's decision-making.

Cole said a U.S. location is more competitive than ever in the current global economy and compared to Mexico, U.S. workers are better educated.

Volkswagen's only North American plant is in Puebla, Mexico, where 9,600 union workers staged a five-day strike in 2006 for better wages and benefits.

"They want an educated, motivated work force," Cole said.

The issue with unions isn't wages. Auto production line work in the U.S. pays about $27 an hour in both union and nonunion facilities, Cole said.