Belgium’s Genk factory kicks off week of social unrest

Nearly 20,000 people demonstrated, on Sunday, November 11, against the closure of the Ford factory in Genk, Belgium. Announced by the US automaker on October 25, the closure, scheduled for the end of 2013, could destroy close to 10,000 jobs. The demonstration's large turn-out "illustrates Europe's social angst," explains Belgian daily Libre Belgique.

The paper notes that up-coming negotiations between unions and management aimed at designing a social action plan for the plant —

... will take place in a context that is doubly fraught: on the national scene, the government of [Socialist Elio] Di Rupo hopes to wrap-up, this week, a budget with a strong whiff of austerity. [...] On the other hand, at the European level, unrest against austerity is rising...

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As witness by the call for a European Day of Action and Solidarity on November 14launched by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). "Forty organisations from 23 countries are participating," says Libre Belgique. These, the paper says —

... want to ask European leaders to act against soaring unemployment and to 'respond to the social angst of the citizens'. [...] This day will give rise to strike movements in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy, four countries hard hit by the crisis. Demonstrations are scheduled in Belgium [...], in France, in some Eastern countries such as Poland, Slovenia, and Romania as well as in front of the European Commission in Brussels.

This protest movement is evidence of the existence of a two-speed Europe, the paper says —

A recurring factor to be noted: the trade unions of Northern European countries are not taking part in the movement, at least not for the moment. This attitude is also evidence of the rift, which is becoming more and more clear, between the North of Europe which continues to argue for fiscal discipline and the countries of the South who fear 'suffocation' under the weight of austerity they must bear. [...] The protest movement will take place just 24 hours before the publication of Eurozone growth figures . These are expected to confirm its entry into recession for the second time in three years.