Workers at the Audi Brussels car plant in the Brussels municipality of Vorst returned to work on Tuesday morning. Enough workers returned for the morning shift to enable the plant to restart. However, Audi Brussels’ spokesman Peter D’hoore was unable to say exactly what proportion of workers had returned to work.
As had been previously announced, the restart is taking place in stages. The sheet metal and paint workshops are the first to get back up and running. On Wednesday the assembly line, battery production line and the final assembly workshops will start up again.
Mr D’hoore told journalists that “Normally, we produce 12 cars an hour, but we're not going to produce this number straight away which is normal after weeks of having been at a standstill. We start things up again gradually. However, the number of workers that have returned voluntarily this morning means that we can keep to the schedule that we had in mind”.
The return to work went smoothly
The return to work comes a day after the demonstration in Brussels in which thousands of trade unionists showed support for workers at Audi Brussels. In recent weeks tensions between management and workers at the plant have run high and they remain so. Nevertheless, the atmosphere at the plant was calm on Tuesday morning.
Peter D’hoore told journalists that “We're happy. I think it's the best thing for everyone”. He added that only the staff that have reported for duty will be paid.
Tuesday will also see another extraordinary meeting of the factory’s Works Council, the third since the a restructuring plan for the plant was announced at the beginning of July.