Fire in Brussels – Audi plant is on strike

Workers gathered outside of the Audi Brussels plant, in Forest, Brussels, Monday 09 September 2024.
Photo: Belga

Audi employees at parent Volkswagen’s Brussels plant have lashed out at their bosses by stealing 200 keys, saying completed cars wouldn’t leave the factory until there was clarity over their futures.

The Brussels Audi plant was earmarked for potential closure in July as Volkswagen attempts to undergo a €10 billion cost-cutting drive, which includes a 20% cut in administrative personnel costs.

Last week, Volkswagen said it didn’t intend to reassign a new model to its Brussels plant after operations stalled in July amid a slowdown in demand for its Q8 e-tron models, leaving the future of more than 3,000 employees in doubt.

The plant was due to resume partial production last Wednesday after weeks of staff leave and closures. However, news that Volkswagen wouldn’t assign a new model led workers to strike.

After talks between union reps and bosses broke down late last week, the union said it was confiscating the keys to between 200 and 300 completed and partially completed cars in the Audi plant.

The union reps said the keys were being kept in a safe place, and they wouldn’t leave the factory until there was clarity over workers’ futures.

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume is locked in a tussle with what he sees as a bloated workforce protected by extensive labor agreements. Blume says Volkswagen can’t “continue as we were” in the face of falling demand and rising competition.

The carmaker has angered its powerful German works council by announcing plans to scrap a 30-year-old employment agreement that guaranteed jobs.

Volkswagen also said it was considering its first plant closures in Germany in its 87-year history, where it employs around 300,000 people.

"Fewer cars are being sold in Europe and new competitors from Asia are pushing aggressively into the market," Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "The cake has got smaller and we have more guests at the table."

Photo: Belga

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