BRUSSELS – Thousands of disgruntled workers demonstrated in the Belgian capital on Monday to protest the threat of massive layoffs in a state-of-the-art Brussels car factory that stands as a symbol for key industries across the European Union that clamor for more government support in the face of global competition.
The trigger for Monday's protest, estimated by police at 5,500 people, was the announcement that German automaker Audi would phase out production at its Forest plant in southern Brussels, threatening the jobs of 3,000 staffers, many of whom are experts in electronic vehicle production which the EU seeks to promote as a breakthrough sector as it struggles to compete with China and the United States.
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“What is happening at Audi can also happen at other factories too. So we have to act to make sure that industries remain,” said Salvatore Tabone , who said he has worked for 27 years at Audi and now faces the prospect of being laid off. “After all the efforts we made, this is the reward we get,” he said.
“This is not an isolated case, unfortunately. There was a tide over the past year” affecting major industries all over Belgium, said ACV union representative Lieve De Preter.
A major EU-requested report said the economies across the 27-nation EU would need a boost of up to 800 billion euros (almost $900 billion) to lead the bloc through a clean energy transition and prepare for effective competition with its global trading partners. The EU has often shown weak growth compared to the United States, increasing the industrial trans-Atlantic gap.
The European Trade Union Confederation said the Audi decision to phase out production in Brussels was “part of a wider trend which saw Europe lose 850,000 jobs across the industry between 2019 and 2023.”
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said “the imminent threat to thousands of jobs on the doorstep of the European institutions should bring home to EU leaders that they are simply not doing enough to support our industries."
The EU's executive office of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is currently in transition following the June 9 EU elections, but has made a revamp of the bloc's industrial policy a key issue to tackle during its next 5-year tenure.