Audi-workers in Belgium on Strike

Featured image: demonstration in Brussels on Monday; Source: lessentiel.lu

We hereby publish an unofficial translation of an article by Dem Volke Dienen:

The Brussels factory of the German car-brand Audi, with its 3,000 workers, is threatened by next year closure. Audi announced in July that the future of the factory, where they produce primarily the bad-sold E-SUV Q8-etron, is uncertain from 2025 onwards.

No Keys in Brussels

Since the end of the summer-production-pause on August 28 the factory stands still. It’s on strike. Also workers of direct involved semi-conductors participate. An action several day ago is noteworthy. Workers confiscated 200 keys of brand-new cars ready to be delivered. To hand them over they demanded guarantees for the future of the factory.

Audi stated that they won’t let them be blackmailed and threatened to compile files based on video footages. The keys were given back early last week, but in the morning hours tires form the Audi-logo were set ablaze in front of the factory. Also a camp was erected.

Yesterday thousands took the streets of Brussels, not only Audi-workers but more than 10,000 people according to the coordinators. Belgian unions called for a nation-wide demonstration. There were strikes in different sectors, like public transports in Brussels, where trams, buses and the metro were interrupted. Delegations from Germany, Poland, France and Holland participated as well. “Within a few weeks I will be unemployed, without money, without perspective. To re-qualify me, being 37-years-old will be complicated.”, a workers told bourgeois media. The strike demonstration marched with torches and fireworks through Brussels. Participants held signs reading “run over” or “Our life is not a production-line”.

Audi outsources production, too

Audi is regarding the sales volume the second largest brand of the VW (Volkswagen) monopoly. Like with the Volkswagen brand it is based mainly in Germany. As well as Volkswagen they bet on outsourcing to the Third World or China (except Porsche as a luxury-brand) to lower production costs and maintain their profits. Hence, the closure of “expensive” factories in the imperialist countries in Europe. Despite the unsuccess of the Q8-etron it is lunatic that there shall be no future for the workers of Brussels. Just this year a new factory in Changchun, China, opened up.

It fits for Belgium as for Germany that the crises effect more broader layers of the people and the combativeness of the masses is generally increasing.