Belgium: workers march and question businesses’ notional interests

Tense social context. These past few weeks, announcements of mass layoffs poured in Belgium. Opel Antwerp is going to close, putting 2,600 jobs at risk. In Jupille, next to Liege, AB InBev unions locked up local management members after the announcement of 67 layoffs on the site and 299 throughout Belgium. At DHL, nearly 800 workers end up without a job. In this tense social context, the three key unions, CSC-FGTB-CGSLB, decided to join forces to demonstrate on Friday, January 28 in Brussels. “We shouldn’t be the ones to pay for the crisis. We’re not disposable” Rudy De Leeuw, leader of the FGTB, the socialist union, declared. CSC general secretary Claude Rollin said, “Employers want us to let them undertake (referring to the campaign launched by Belgian entrepreneurs entitled Let us undertake). Well, we ask that they let us work.”
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ble” Rudy De Leeuw, leader of the FGTB, the socialist union, declared. CSC general secretary Claude Rollin said, “Employers want us to let them undertake (referring to the campaign launched by Belgian entrepreneurs entitled Let us undertake). Well, we ask that they let us work.”

Notional interests. The demonstrators were asking for many things: “The end of unscrupulous dumping in respect to the workers;” “maintaining and reviving employment in Belgium and in Europe;” “more jobs for the youth and

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