After days of mounting tension, unions and management at the Audi plant in Brussels are back at the negotiating table. The talks proceed on neutral ground, at the federal employment ministry in Anderlecht. The aim is to end the labour dispute triggered by the news that no new model will be built in the Belgian capital. Yesterday, the unions at the German carmaker returned the keys that they had seized from 300 cars and the Audi Brussels management promised not to prosecute anyone for the theft.
The socialist union, the ABVV, wants the workers to be paid for this week, says Franky De Schrijver.
‘We have only one priority on the agenda today: how are our workers going to be paid this week? At the end of the day, people have not been paid. The factory is closed. The 700-odd white-collar workers are being paid, factory workers are not,’ explains Mr De Schrijver.
Lockout as a means of pressure
As it is still unclear what will happen to the Vorst plant, workers last week refused to start work and confiscated car keys. New cars could not leave for dealerships as a result.
The management responded with a lockout, a unilateral and temporary measure that means the plant is closed and wages are withheld.
‘Workers have to hope that the unions will pay strike pay,’ Kris De Schutter, a lawyer at labour law firm Loyens & Loeff, explains.