5 October, 2009
Belgian workers, members of two ICEM affiliates – FGTB and CSV, are bracing for more job redundancies in the glass sector, as Japanese-based Asahi Glass announced job cuts at two worksites in southern Belgium by year end.
AGC Automotive, Asahi’s auto-glass manufacturer, announced late in September that it intends to chop 203 jobs at a factory in Fleurus, Belgium, and at an administrative centre in Seneffe, Belgium. The company also said it was cutting another 68 jobs at an auto-mirror factory in Cuneo, Italy.
Belgian workers in Wallonia immediately began a 24-hour strike upon hearing the announcement. The Renault procedure was invoked and the unions and management are in talks to hopefully restrict the number of job cuts.
This week, on 9 October, FGTB and CSC will hold a manifestation in Charleroi against Asahi’s cuts, entitled “We Will Not Pay Twice for the Crisis!”
Asahi’s proposed redundancies would further deepen a manufacturing crisis that has gripped the Walloon region of Belgium. The 163 jobs targeted for redundancy at Fleurus would more than half the present workforce of 295. A short eight years ago, the Japanese company employed 1,150 workers at the auto-glass plant. In Seneffe, 40 out of 165 jobs at the company’s European administration headquarters are proposed to be cut, with that facility closing and the remaining workers transferred to Fleurus.
In Italy, the initial proposal for the Cuneo plant is to lop 68 of 209 jobs. Asahi also announced it was closing an auto-glass factory in Kitakyushi, Japan, by January 2010.