23 September, 2009Workers rally at Opel plant in Antwerp demanding no to the closure of plants and no to forced redundancies.
BELGIUM: Between 3,000 and 5,000 European workers rallied at the Opel plant in Antwerp on September 23 in response to a call from the European Metalworkers' Federation for mobilisation and solidarity in the light of the current restructuring of GM Europe and the threat of closure of the Antwerp plant.
EMF general secretary Peter Scherrer welcomed trade unionists from Spain, England, Germany, Poland, Hungary and France to the rally as well as the workers in Belgium.
"We will address management again and again regarding our principle demands, which are: no to the closure of plants and no to forced redundancies!" said Scherrer.
"We all know that when we do not fight for Antwerp today, tomorrow it will be Bochum, Luton or Zaragossa. We all know that if we do not stick together as firmly as possible we all will lose this fight," he said.
"We need responsible behaviour from the governments and politicians. We will not accept that workers are the hostages of political games. We want effective co-ordination of help, support and aid given to companies at European level," argued Scherrer.
Other speakers at the rally include Klaus Franz, the Chairman of EEF (the GM European Works Council) and trade union leaders of the Belgian trade unions.