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29 November, 2010
Members of two ICEM affiliates in Belgium carried out a 24-hour strike at two glass factories in western Flanders on Friday, 26 November, as an immediate response to Japanese-based Asahi Glass’s decision to radically downsize two AGC (formerly Glaverbel) plants near Zeebrugge. In an extraordinary meeting of the company’s board a day earlier, the board failed to give reason why it would eliminate 101 of 297 jobs at AGC Zeebrugge and AGC Seapane.
The strike was carried out by De Algemene Centrale ABVV, ICEM’s Socialist affiliate in Belgium, and by Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond ACV, the Christian affiliate. The company must still negotiate with the unions over the redundancies.
The announcement is the second major restructuring by Asahi in Belgium in just over a year and the fourth in ten years. In October 2009, AGC Automotive caused industrial unrest in the Wallonia region of Belgium by making redundant over 200 of 475 workers employed at a factory in Fleurus and an administrative centre in Seneffe.
Last week’s announcement in Flanders comes as a blow to a pair of factories that have a reputation for innovation, advanced technical design, and high-value glass applications among Asahi’s worldwide operations. The company also announced job sackings, numbering between 60 and 90, at glass production facilities in Kryry, Czech Republic, the AGC Klin factory near Moscow, and one in The Netherlands.
In addition to the planned 101 sackings in Zeebrugge, eight temporary workers will be let go.
At the ACG Zeebrugge factory, a maker of automobile mirrors and high-value glass used in the furniture industry, 72 of 176 jobs are proposed to be cut. At ACG Seapane, a maker of heat-insulated glazed architectural glass used in the construction industry that had seen its job ranks grow up through last year, 29 of 121 workers are scheduled for redundancies.
ABVV Regional Secretary Luc Geerardyn said the board’s decision last week is flawed. He said AGC failed to provide any hard evidence for the proposed sackings, nor did it provide any financial figures to justify the decision.