Around 500 Audi Brussels workers staged a joint union action on Monday, demanding that management engage in "real" negotiations for a redundancy plan, according to Brussels police.
The workers first gathered in front of the factory in Forest before marching to an Audi dealership in Drogenbos, Belga News Agency reported. Upon arriving at the dealership, several workers placed "Never Again Audi" stickers on the window.
"The goal is to show that [the unions] are still here and that there are still possibilities," said a representative for the FGTB Metal union, Grégory Dascotte.
The Audi plant in Forest is set to close in February 2025, affecting around 3,000 employees. The negotiations between unions and management have been unsuccessful in securing a future for the staff working there.
Dascotte indicated that more actions could be organised in January. "Since Audi won’t listen to us, we’re now going to target their image," he asserted.
Action organised by the Audi Brussels unions, on Monday 23 December 2024, in Brussels. Credit: Belga/James Arthur Gekiere.
On 12 December, Audi Brussels’ supervisory board decided to end the information and consultation phase of the collective redundancy procedure launched in July. Dascotte described this decision as "unacceptable."
"Audi is setting a dangerous precedent by bypassing collective negotiations, which we will not tolerate," emphasised the FGTB and CSC unions ahead of Monday’s action.
The latest conciliation meeting held last week ended in failure. "After several hours of discussions, we had to acknowledge the failure of conciliation. The management proposed a final non-negotiable and heavily-conditioned offer," the joint union front stated on Wednesday following the meeting.
Audi Brussels spokesperson, Peter D’hoore, also lamented that the meeting "ended without a common solution."
Audi Brussels has announced that its employees will be contacted individually about severance packages.
