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9 April, 2007
ICEM Belgian affiliates CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB have warned Japanese-owned Asahi Glaverbel Glass that further restructuring at the AGC Automotive glass plant in Fleurus, Wallonia, or other AGC worksites, can only be done through strict adherence to solutions already put forward by the unions.
On 29 March, Asahi Glaverbel announced possible redundancies of 380 jobs at Fleurus, Zeebrugge, and Lodelinsart in Belgium. This restructuring occurs a short two years after Belgian unions mounted a 105-day strike at the Fleurus plant. That strike, from December 2005 to March 2006, came about because of Asahi’s failure to come to meaningful social dialogue over an irrational restructuring plan.
That restructuring exercise cost some 280 jobs at Fleurus then, and other job losses occurred a year later at Asahi Glaverbel’s Zeebrugge flat-glass plant.
“In all three plants,” said the CG-FGTB in a press release, “the workers of Glaverbel have made major efforts in terms of productivity, flexibility, and efficiency. The management of AGC-Fleurus recognises this fact today, and this is also evident by investments” made in other Belgian operations of Glaverbel.
“The workers of Glaverbel-ACG do not deserve” further redundancies, stated CG-FGTB.
The unions did enter social dialogue with the company late in March, and a second meeting was scheduled for 3 April. CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB are insistent that they will be thoroughly involved in any business plan put forward this time by the company.
CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB say their first priority will be to save all the jobs, and they will not tolerate outright sackings. If necessary, transfers for workers between Glaverbel worksites, or voluntary and pre-pension arrangements will be put negotiated.
“Industrial managers (of Asahi) and the political community made promises in the past,” stated the two unions, referring to the negotiated outcome in 2005. “Today, they must honour those pacts. They must listen to the solutions that we have proposed, and support the industrial projects at Glaverbel-ACG that are worthy of solid, job-sustaining initiatives.”