Belgian workers march in sympathy over threats to Audi Brussels

By Bart Biesemans

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – More than 5,000 people marched through Brussels and most public transport in the Belgian capital was suspended on Monday in solidarity with workers of Audi Brussels whose jobs are threatened.

Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p), announced in July plans to restructure the Brussels plant, which employs 3,000 people, and said it was considering an early end to production there of its Audi Q8 e-tron electric cars.

Workers at the plant went on strike and, although the management and union negotiators have agreed a return to work from Tuesday, Monday’s demonstration went ahead, parading from a station to a square in front of the European Parliament.

One of the Audi workers, Katie Vanden Eycken, said she was there to save her job.

“It’s not nice that they have been stalling us for so long. Closed, not closed, closed, not closed. Wage, no wage. It’s not nice you know. I hope something will come out of it,” she said.

Union officials pointed to a wider threat to industry.

“We also want to send a strong signal to European authorities, which are making things difficult for Belgian industry, but also for European industry. The manufacturing industry is mainly migrating away from our countries,” said Patrick Van Belle, chief official of the Socialist union at Audi.

Police said the demonstration, led by a large banner reading “The Industry is Ours”, was peaceful and drew 5,500 people.