Car workers march on Brussels
By James Vassilopoulos
On March 16, 150,000 workers from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and England marched on Brussels to protest against the closure of Belgium's Renault car plant at Vilvoorde.
The rally marched with a effigy of Louis Schweitzer on the gallows. Schweitzer is the head of the Renault company who announced the closure of the Belgian car plant and the sacking of 3100 workers. Rally slogans included"Europe equals free movement of unemployment" and "No to a Europe of money".
Renault has announced that 2800 jobs will go in France and that it will increase its Spanish operations to take advantage of 25% lower wage costs, relocation subsidies and lower taxes. A Renault spokesperson said: "Our strategy in the future will be to go outside Europe. We plan to build a plant in Brazil by 1999."
On March 14, in the first "Euro-strike", Renault workers from Belgium, France and Spain struck for one hour to protest the plant closure. Workers chanted "We are all Belgian workers". Workers at Ford, Volkswagen, General Motors and Volvo shut down production lines in Belgium in solidarity.
One worker at the Vilvoorde plant said: "We have accepted everything here. Working nine hours a day, sometimes five days a week with 20 minutes to eat and ten minutes for a pee. And they time us! We are robots. We have worked like slaves. And still they dump us when it suits them."