File spoon-archives/marxism-news.archive/marxism-news_1997/97-04-09.200, message 8


Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 06:58:23 +0100
From: Robert Malecki <malecki-AT-algonet.se>
Subject: Protest over Renault plant closure



 Protest over Renault plant closure
                By Toby Helm, EU Correspondent in Brussels

INDUSTRIAL unrest and a wave of anti-French feeling swept through Brussels
yesterday as thousands of car workers protested at a sudden decision by
Renault to close its main Belgian factory with the loss of 3,100 jobs.

The move by Renault, which is still 47 per cent owned by the French state,
has also led to angry criticism from the Belgian government. The argument is
particularly bitter because the threatened plant is in Vilvoorde, Flanders,
the
home of Jean-Luc Dehaene, the Belgian Prime Minister. He has described the
announcement - made before the weekend - as "brutal and unacceptable".
Yesterday the centre of Brussels was sealed off by riot police as about
4,000 people demanded that the factory should be saved.

Banners urged Belgians to "declare war" on the Renault chairman, Louis
Schweitzer, who has warned that his company's results for 1996 will show the
first loss for a decade. Mr Schweitzer insisted in talks with Belgian
officials at the weekend that he will not go back on the decision and that
production will be switched to France and Spain. The decision had been taken
for strategic and economic reasons, he said.

Renault workers were joined by employees of Volkswagen, redundant steel
workers and employees of the Belgian airline, Sabena. Members of French
unions also joined the protest march. Union leaders warn that they will hold
hostage 5,000 finished cars, worth more than =A360 million, until the decision
is reversed. Some are also urging a boycott of Renault cars by all Belgians.
"The Renault management has made a scadalous decision which is neither
industrial political. It is a financial move designed to make the stock
market go up," said the union leader, Hendrick Vermeersch.

Mr Dehaene's response was equalled in ferocity by that of Eric Van Rompuy,
the Flemish economics minister, who described Renault's action as "a
terrorist act against the Flemish economy".

Several more protests are planned for this week culminating in a national
march for jobs next weekend.

Announcing the closure late last week, Renault said it could save about =A3100
million a year by transferring production at Vilvoorde to factories in Spain
and France. It could achieve the same level of productivity there with 1,900
workers, it said.





   

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