A further 325 jobs are at risk at the American sports equipment manufacturer Nike in Laakdal (Antwerp Province). These come in addition to the 411 jobs already announced as being at risk. This brings the total number of jobs at risk to 736. However, management has made proposals with regard to this latest wave of redundancies that may still save the jobs.
Laakdal and neighbouring Ham (Tessenderlo-Ham in Limburg Province) are home to Nike’s distribution centre for sportswear and footwear for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In early March, the company announced a major restructuring operation that put 411 jobs at risk. 330 of these jobs were held by weekend workers on the day and night shifts. The remaining 81 were people working in logistics support.
“There is too little work, especially at weekends, according to the management,” Eric Vuchelen of the liberal trade union ACLVB said earlier. “Anyone starting at 6 am has no work. The reason for this? Sales aren’t going well.”
"Weekend shifts peaked during the pandemic," says Marieke Van Gils of the socialist BBTK union. "People ordered Nike products online so they wouldn’t have to wait for delivery until after the weekend. But digital sales have been sluggish for some time now. No adjustments were ever made, and now management is taking drastic action."
Part-time workers also affected
The trade unions had hoped to limit the number of redundancies, but now a further 325 jobs are reportedly under threat, specifically those of part-time workers a new extraordinary works council meeting was told.
“Between 10 March and today, Nike published its quarterly figures,” explains Vuchelen. “They were not particularly good. On top of that, the forecasts for this and the next financial year also look anything but rosy.”
In total, 736 people could potentially lose their jobs. For the latest wave, however, “additional measures” will apply. “In response to our request, these measures are currently clearly being explained on the shop floor,” says Van Gils.
"The measures will increase flexibility, which could help avoid redundancies, if we reach an agreement."
"We certainly want to engage in that discussion. But what is currently on the table is tough. However, we are not sure that the measures will offer a solution and that employees will agree to them either."
Confidence is low
According to Van Gils, confidence is low. "After the previous announcement, we tried to negotiate favourable terms for the employees, but that has now been put on hold to some extent by the latest announcement."
"What we now want to know: if we agree to these measures that will have such a far-reaching impact on us, can we be sure that tomorrow we won’t have to go through the same thing that some people are going through now? What does trust mean in such a situation? The company is struggling. Giving guarantees is not straightforward in these situations."
"Another works council meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday. We have meetings almost every day over the coming weeks. We have cleared our diaries completely in an effort to move as quickly as possible. But above all, we want to proceed very carefully. We are doing our best to provide clarity as soon as possible."