Amid looming uncertainty about the future of Audi's production site in Brussels, workers remain on strike on Friday morning and have taken the keys to hundreds of vehicles.
According to the Flemish socialist union ABVV, assembly line workers arrived to the Forest site on Friday morning but talks between management and unions resulted in the decision not to resume work.
"The factory was fully staffed this morning. There was another speech from management, then the unions spoke briefly and people didn't go to work", said Franky De Schrijver of ABVV. The union representative said he has "no idea" whether management will continue to call staff into the factory, or if there will be attempts to restore calm.
Workers confiscate keys
Meanwhile, VTM Nieuws and RTBF report that workers at Audi Brussels in Forest have seized the keys to completed and unfinished vehicles.
Between 200 and 300 cars on the site are concerned, with unions indicating that no vehicles will leave the factory until they receive clarification about the future of the company.
Reports say that as unions heard management were planning to recover cars that are in the factory garages this week, the keys to vehicles were confiscated and are now being kept in a safe place.
"We are currently investigating what exactly happened," said Peter D'hoore, spokesman for Audi Brussels. "We understand that people are worried and react emotionally. We call on all staff to exercise common sense."
Out of action since July
The Forest production line has been stalled since July, when Audi Brussels announced plans to restructure its operations there, citing a slowdown in demand for the electric Q8 e-tron models produced in Brussels, as well as "long-standing structural challenges" with the site.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the Forest factory would not be allocated a new model by parent company Volkswagen, meaning that finding a buyer for the plant may be the only way to avoid closure and the loss of thousands of jobs.
More than 3,000 people currently work at the Brussels site. If no buyer is found and the plant closes, around 1,500 jobs could be lost as soon as October, with over 1,100 additional redundancies next year. The final layoffs could happen at the end of 2025.
While some operations were due to resume at the site this week, following weeks of collective leave and summer closure, in protest staff have not returned to work.
