The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.13           March 31, 1997 
 
 
Marchers In Brussels Call For Jobs  

BY NAT LONDON AND CAROLINE BELLAMY
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Tens of thousands of workers from Belgium, France, and elsewhere marched through the heart of the Belgian capital March 16, protesting job cuts and calling for a shorter workweek. The three Belgian union federations called the demonstration in solidarity with workers fighting for their jobs, after a series of walkouts and other actions in defense of Renault car workers in nearby Vilvoorde.

Renault bosses announced February 27 that the Vilvoorde assembly plant will close in July, axing 3,100 jobs. An equal number of jobs will be cut as a result at local companies that sub-contract work from the auto giant. As word of the closure first spread through the plant, workers rushed to the parking lot just in time to stop 50 car transporter trucks from hauling away thousands of newly produced cars. The factory has now been occupied for two weeks and 4,500 cars are being held "hostage" as workers demand that the plan to close the plant be canceled.

Most of the demonstrators on March 16 were industrial workers from Belgium. In addition, a contingent of about 5,000 came from France, including a large number of Renault workers, as well as smaller delegations from Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Organizers said 70,000 participated in the demonstration; the cops put the figure at 40,000.

Banners produced by the unions called for a "Social Europe," referring to demands that the European Union pass legislation that would lead to "a Europe of citizens, not a Europe of money; a fair tax system which favors employment, not capital," as a leaflet passed out at the rally put it.

Officials of the main workers organizations promoted the idea that the Maastricht Treaty, which outlines plans for European monetary union, is to blame for rising unemployment and attacks on workers' living standards. Robert Hue, leader of the French Communist Party, called the demonstration "the burial of Maastricht."

Michel Nollet, president of the FGTB social democratic trade union in Belgium, told demonstrators, "You have come to Brussels to say no to a Europe ruled by money and competition, no to a Europe of restructuring, delocations, and closures."

French Socialist Party head Lionel Jospin said he joined the march "to say no to a conception of Europe that produces 18 million people out of work and weak growth."

Jean-Marie Page, an assembly line worker at Volkswagen in Brussels for 10 years, shrugged his shoulders at these explanations. "We fought for what we've got now," he said, "and we'll have to fight to keep it and keep on fighting. If things go on like this we'll just have the rich and the poor, and most of us will be the poor."

Handmade placards carried slogans in solidarity with workers at Renault and the Forges de Clabecq, an integrated steel mill where workers have been resisting 1,800 job cuts since December. Some 50,000 people demonstrated February 2 at Clabecq against its closure.

One group carried black crosses with the name of a closed or downsized factory on each one. Another demonstrator simply wore a white plastic sack on which he had written over and over "I'm sick of it." A militant contingent of young workers from the Volvo plant in Ghent, Belgium, chanted "Renault, Volvo, solidarity" as they marched.

For a shorter workweek
"32 hours!" proclaimed a number of banners demanding a cut in the work week to four days. The daily Le Soir reported, "The union organizers [of the march] are going to be pushing for a reduction in working time, aiming at a four-day week. This is the package that [Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc] Dehaene is trying to sell to the head of Renault, Louis Schweitzer, which in the end will mean a reduction in labor costs." The French daily La Tribune adds that Dehaene's proposal involves a 32-hour week in return for a reduction of some 33 million French francs ($5.8 million) in the employer's social security contributions. The paper didn't comment on what effect this may have on social benefits overall. Capitalist politicians and union officials hold up Volkswagen in Germany as an example of a similar agreement. There, the automaker agreed to reduce the work week to four days rather than cut 30,000 jobs, but at a cost to the workers of 16 percent of their gross salary.

The closure announcement shocked workers at Vilvoorde, some of whom heard the news on the radio as they started the evening shift. The final part of a $238 million investment program at the plant was completed only months ago. "When you see so much money put in," said Jean Pas, a Renault worker and shop steward, "you think maybe I will buy that house after all." Vilvoorde workers were often told that their cars topped Renault's group quality assessments. In 1994, workers had agreed to the implementation of a flexible working system of nine-hour shifts and a variable number of working days each month. The Financial Times bluntly commented that the experience showed "flexibility cannot guarantee jobs."

Renault is 47 percent owned by the French government and 53 percent by private shareholders. In addition to the Vilvoorde factory, the company has plants in France, Spain, and Portugal. Later this month it is expected to announce its first loss in 10 years, of some $848 million.

Days after the closure announcement, on March 5, 17 busloads of striking workers traveled to Renault's Douai assembly plant, just 30 kilometers over the French side of the border. Outside the closed gates of the Douai plant, French union officials attended a rally with the striking workers.

Young workers from Vilvoorde changed the established program for the rally, however, when they managed to pull the Douai factory fence out of its concrete foundations. Nine hundred strikers entered the factory in a demonstration that stopped production lines. They chanted "meme patron, meme combat" (same boss, same struggle) and "tous ensemble" (all together), the chant made popular by the striking railroad workers in 1995.

"When we first got word of the Vilvoorde plant closure," said Nouredine El Madkour, a young worker at Renault's Flins assembly plant 50 kilometers outside Paris, "many of my co- workers thought that this meant their jobs here in France were more secure. But the next day Renault announced it was cutting 2,700 jobs in France as well. Workers began to realize that only by supporting the Vilvoorde workers could we protect our own jobs." El Madkour, who was born in Morocco and has attended demonstrations in support of undocumented workers in France, was only recently hired by Renault.

Unions in France, Belgium, and Spain called a one-hour work stoppage in every Renault plant in the three countries on March 7. The press called it the first "Euro-strike." The action became a total one-day shutdown of the two Renault assembly plants in Spain. In Belgium, Renault workers were joined in the stoppage by auto workers in Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen, and GM Opel plants. "This is the first time all the factories have come together in solidarity," said Jos Deloos, a worker in the Ford body plant in Genk.

On March 11, the same unions called a "Euro-demonstration" of striking workers. Ten thousand workers from the three countries converged on Renault headquarters in Boulogne- Billancourt in France.

The international strike and demonstration of Renault workers has received wide support. Among the crowd at the March 11 rally was a delegation of undocumented workers who have been occupying churches in France to demand "papers for everyone." One of these fighters, Madjiguene Cissé, said, "The undocumented are in solidarity with Renault because we are all workers, like the truck drivers, postal workers, and rail workers. We know these `downsizing' plans very well. In Senegal they are done by the World Bank, here by Renault. But they are all the same," she said.

Other layoffs in auto industry
Renault chief Schweitzer stated that closing the Vilvoorde plant was a "painful" decision but the plant had wage costs that were 30 percent higher than the nearby Douai plant on the French side of the border. He pointed to the previous closure of the No. 1 assembly line in the Valladolid factory in Spain in 1991, the Billancourt assembly plant in France in 1992, and the Creil plant in France and Setúbal plant in Portugal in 1996 as other "painful" decisions.

Other auto companies in Europe have announced layoffs as well. In February, Ford said it would cut 1,300 jobs at its Halewood plant in Britain. Business papers have proclaimed the layoffs as the start of "Europe's great car war," as auto companies try to cut "over-capacity" in the face of a stagnating market.

In addition, Schweitzer says he is worried about increased competition from Japan when the European market becomes open to unrestricted access by Japanese companies in the year 2000. Currently, import quotas have limited Toyota sales to 5 percent of the French market and 16 percent of the market in Germany.

Schweitzer was loudly attacked by political figures in both Belgium and France. Belgian authorities declared that Schweitzer's actions were "economic terrorism" and urged workers to sue Renault in a European court. French President Jacques Chirac claimed he was "shocked by the methods used" by Renault. The French paper Le Monde, however, reported that both French and Belgian authorities had been informed of the plant closure weeks in advance.

The Belgian government tried to lead the Vilvoorde workers into a "boycott French goods" campaign. The small town of Ans canceled its order of cars from Renault. The mayor of Ans is also the Belgian Federal Transportation Minister. The next day, the Interior Minister canceled an order of 150 Renault cars for the Belgian police. The cities of Namur and Liege followed suite. Initially, some of the Vilvoorde strikers supported the "boycott French" campaign. Some of them told reporters that they had voted for the Vlaams Blok, a fascist party espousing Flemish nationalism. Vlaams Blok has ties to the fascist National Front in France.

Most workers pulled back from a "boycott Renault" campaign when they saw it would separate them from Renault workers in France. Nonetheless a number of strikers at the Billancourt demonstration had photocopied signs saying, "This is my last Renault, and you?" Such signs have been widely distributed among Vilvoorde workers, and many have used them as car stickers. However, much more prominent were the two slogans chanted in French over and over, "Renault solidarité" and "meme patron, meme combat" (same boss, same struggle). Some strikers tore down Vlaams Blok posters during a demonstration in Brussels.

The local union of the General Federation of Labor of Belgium (ABW/FGTB) at Vilvoorde has proposed to the French and Spanish unions at Renault to launch a common campaign for a 10 percent reduction in working time, which they say will be sufficient to ensure that the Vilvoorde plant remains open.

Renault workers are planning a further week of action, with its high point on March 20 when Renault will officially announce its financial results for 1996.

Caroline Bellamy is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union at Ford's Dagenham plant in London. Nat London is a member of the CGT union confederation at Renault near Paris. Martin Hill contributed to this article.  
 
 
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