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Thousands of Autoworkers Protest in Brussels Amid Likely Audi Layoffs
"Their anger is very legitimate, very understandable, especially since Audi is not very clear on its plans," a local employment minister said.
Sep 16, 2024
Thousands of autoworkers protested in Brussels on Monday following recent news that Audi, a subsidiary of the German automaker Volkswagen, would phase out production at its plant there, which is expected to mean layoffs for its roughly 3,000 employees by the end of 2025.
The phase-out announcement led to a labor dispute that's shuttered the plant for the last two weeks, with some employees forming an encampment protest outside. The plant is expected to resume operations on Tuesday even though the core issues underlying the labor dispute, which some unions have characterized as a lockout by management, haven't been resolved.
Between 5,500 and 11,000 demonstrators marched toward the European Parliament on Monday, bringing "chaos" to Brussels, where public transport was largely shut down. Unions not directly affected by the Audi plant's likely closure participated in solidarity.
"Their anger is very legitimate, very understandable, especially since Audi is not very clear on its plans," Bernard Clerfayt, a local employment minister, toldAFP.
Charlie Le Paige of Belgium's worker's party, Parti du Travail de Belgique, wrote on social media that there were "lots and lots of people in the streets of Brussels in support of Audi workers and subcontractors."
Le Paige said that the company was treating employees as disposable while distributing huge amounts of money to shareholders, and declared that "workers are not adjustment variables!"
Beaucoup beaucoup de monde dans les rues de Bruxelles en soutien aux travailleurs et aux sous-traitants d'#Audi 🔥 Le groupe VW-Audi a distribué près de 12 milliards de dividendes l'année passée, les travailleurs ne sont pas des variables ajustement! pic.twitter.com/aUEgbCNZsl
— Charlie Le Paige (@charlielepaige) September 16, 2024
The state-of-the-art Audi plant in southern Brussels produces the Q8 e-Tron, an electric sport utility vehicle. Audi received about 27 million euros ($30 million) in public funding to retrain workers when it converted to electric vehicle production.
Audi announced in July that it was considering discontinuing production of the commercially unsuccessful Q8 e-Tron and closing the Brussels plant, and said earlier this month that it still hadn't found an alternative vehicle that it could produce there.
The following day, September 4, the plant's workers "downed tools" and set up protest camps on the premises, according toWorld Socialist Web Site.
On September 6, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, a leading U.S. unionist, visited the plant in solidarity with the workers there.
About 1,500 Audi workers at the plant face the prospect of layoffs as early as next month, another 1,100 by May, and the remainder by the end of 2025. There are also many hundreds of subcontractor workers that would be impacted by a closure, unions have said.
Last week, workers took about 200 car keys from vehicles at the plant as an act of protest, prompting warnings of legal action by the company. The workers later returned the keys to try to facilitate discussions with management.
The plant's likely closure is seen as part of E.V. failures at Volkswagen and European carmakers more generally, prompting calls for the European Union to invest in and protect the industry. Audi reportedly plans to make the successor to the Q8 e-Tron in Mexico.
Many of the demonstrators on Monday spoke harshly about E.U. policy.
"We also want to send a strong signal to European authorities, which are making things difficult for Belgian industry, but also for European industry," Patrick Van Belle, a leading union official at Audi Brussels, toldReuters, in explaining the reasons for Monday's demonstration. "The manufacturing industry is mainly migrating away from our countries."
Volkswagen's layoffs may in fact extend beyond Belgium. The company made the surprising announcement earlier this month that it may shutter factories in Germany, drawing fierce opposition from unions there. The closures would be the first in Germany in the company's 87-year history.
Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last week issued a report, commissioned by the E.U., calling for stronger industrial policy and a degree of trade protectionism, including in the auto industry, which is struggling to compete with heavily subsidized Chinese vehicles. Draghi, hardly considered a radical political thinker, drew criticism from neoliberal institutions for the proposals.
Local police said about 5,500 people attended the demonstration on Monday while unions put the figure at 11,000.
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After Historic Union Vote, Chattanooga VW Workers Rally for 'Record Contract'
"You're the backbone of this plant, you're the backbone of this company, and you deserve your fair share of the wealth that you create," UAW President Shawn Fain told workers.
Sep 15, 2024
Following their historic vote to join the United Auto Workers in April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee held a rally on Sunday as they prepare to head into their first round of negotiations with the company next week.
With their vote, the Chattanooga workers became the first Southern automakers not affiliated with one of the Big Three auto companies to win a union.
"Just a few months ago, you voted 3-1 to join the UAW," the union's president Shawn Fain told the assembled workers, adding, "You had faith, and you moved mountains, you overcame opposition, and you won your union."
"With the kinds of profits you're generating, Volkswagen could double your wages, not raise prices, and still make billions of dollars. It's a choice."
At a rally that began at 1:30 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, Fain told gathered workers that they were now ready for the "next step."
"We tell Volkswagen, get out your pens, because it's time to put it down in writing," Fain said.
Heading into negotiations, the UAW is set to make several demands of Volkswagen, among them improved health and safety; competitive wages including cost of living allowances, profit sharing, and no tiers; improved paid-time-off policies; more retirement security; affordable healthcare; and union protections such as due process, union representation, paid time for union work, job training, and fair promotion policies.
Fain warned the workers that the company and the corporate media would try to fearmonger about the union's demands.
"They're going to say that our righteous fight for a high quality of life for the working class will wreck the economy or derail the transition to EV," Fain said, adding, "The only economy that's going to get wrecked in this is their economy that only works for the rich and the corporate class."
Fain shared figures showing that Volkswagen had increased its profits since 2021 by 49% compared with the previous three years, securing $24 billion in profits in 2023 alone. But instead of sharing that windfall equitably with the workforce and the local economy, it paid CEO Oliver Blume $10.5 million and wealthy shareholders $12.7 billion. Shareholders have seen their dividends jump by 288% in two years.
"That's billions of dollars that have been robbed from the workers who generated those profits," Fain said. "It's billions of dollars that weren't spent on the EV transition. It's billions of dollars being spent on mansions in faraway countries and yachts in private marinas, and not being spent in the local businesses right here in Tennessee."
At the same time, workers at the Chattanooga plant had produced more than 1.5 million vehicles for over $50 billion in sales since 2011.
"You're the backbone of this plant, you're the backbone of this company, and you deserve your fair share of the wealth that you create," Fain said, adding, "With the kinds of profits you're generating, Volkswagen could double your wages, not raise prices, and still make billions of dollars. It's a choice."
Ultimately, Fain said the figures he cited had one cause: "corporate greed."
Fain noted that the Chattanooga workers were entering negotiations for their first union contract roughly one year after UAW workers at the Big Three car makers launched their historic "stand up strike, ultimately winning record-breaking contracts from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
"Since that moment, workers everywhere including here at Volkswagen are standing up to fight corporate greed and demand your fair share in the economy," Fain said.
He told the Chattanooga workers, "Now is your time to win a record contract and make history again."
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Can the UAW Turn It Around for Labor in the South?
If roughly 5,000 Alabama Mercedes workers vote to unionize in the coming weeks, the ripple effects could empower workers nationwide.
May 04, 2024
The United Auto Workers recently scored the largest union victory in decades in the South. Their success at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant could be a turning point for labor in a region long known for governmental hostility to unions.
The next test will be a UAW election scheduled for the week of May 13 at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama, a state that has attracted so much auto investment it has earned the nickname “the Detroit of the South.”
If the roughly 5,000 Mercedes workers vote to unionize, the ripple effects could empower workers nationwide.
We need a New South economic structure based on fairness and equity.
For decades, Southern states have pursued “low-road” development strategies, luring investors with massive public subsidies and repressive labor policies. This has pitted workers across the country against each other, undercutting everyone’s ability to secure fair compensation.
Alabama has spent $1.6 billion to woo Mercedes, along with Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda. All these foreign companies’ operations in the South are non-union, in contrast to the unionized Big Three of Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
This foreign investment has created thousands of Alabama jobs—but with weak worker protections, the state remains one of the nation’s poorest. And while these companies have enjoyed rising corporate profits, they have left workers behind.
An in-depth report by the nonprofit group Alabama Arise found that inflation-adjusted average pay for the state’s autoworkers has dropped by 11% over the past 20 years to $64,682. Meanwhile, CEO pay stands at $13.9 million at Mercedes and $6.9 million at Toyota.
The foreign-owned firms’ payrolls also reflect Alabama’s long history of racial discrimination, with Black and Latino workers earning substantially less than their white counterparts. By contrast, the Economic Policy Institute has found that union workers make 10.1% more on average than non-union workers.
The benefits are even greater for workers of color. Unionized Black workers make 13.1% more than non-union Black workers in comparable jobs—and Latino union members make 18.8% more than non-union Latino workers.
Equitable pay practices boost local economies by putting more money in workers’ pockets for groceries, housing, and other goods and services from local businesses. And that’s good for families of every color.
But Alabama Governor Kay Ivey doesn’t see things that way. Before the UAW vote in Tennessee, she joined GOP governors from Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas to discourage VW workers from voting yes with unfounded threats of mass layoffs.
When 73% of those autoworkers voted for the UAW, it was a strong rebuke of the region’s low-road, anti-worker model. So corporate lobbyists in the region have enlisted state legislators and cabinet officials in a sustained campaign to blunt organizing momentum.
How will the election turn out in Alabama?
A new poll indicates that 52% of residents in this deep-red state support the autoworkers’ union drive, while just 21% are opposed. This echoes a 2022 poll commissioned by the Institute for Policy Studies in Jefferson County, Alabama, where workers were attempting to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer. That survey showed nearly two-thirds support.
While the Alabama Amazon campaign fell short in the face of aggressive anti-union tactics, increased public approval of unions is a testament to many years of community and labor organizing.
The fact that a large majority of workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant signed petitions earlier this year in support of the election is encouraging. We need a New South economic structure based on fairness and equity. Organized labor is an essential partner in that mission.
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