Belgian unions say the impact of any potential closure by Ford of its Genk plant could be up to six times greater than when General Motors shuttered its Antwerp site, given the number of suppliers close to the factory.
The country’s ABVV-FGTB umbrella union body says a meeting of Ford top executives is to meet tonight (18 September), US time, in Detroit, although the automaker was not available to confirm the discussions or if they would be concerning its Belgian operation.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Speculation has focused on Ford potentially downsizing or shutting the Genk factory that assembles the Mondeo, S-Max wagon and Galaxy, but which is only running at 68% capacity.
“This is much, much bigger than Opel Belgium because in Antwerp you had the site and of course all the suppliers, they were hit, but they were not near the plant,” ABVV-FGBT cabinet staff member, Rudi Kennes, told just-auto from Belgium.
“In Genk it is the other way around – every major supplier is on the site. All the big suppliers are just across the street. Employment will be hit, it will be huge, maybe it is five to six times Opel Belgium.”
Should Ford proceed with any downsizing or even closure, it will be the second major blow to the region of Limburg following the virtual ending of the area’s mining industry, many of whose employees transferred to the US automaker.
Unions held a meeting earlier today with management to evaluate the situation – with speculation centering on a further possibility of Ford keeping just Mondeo production at the Genk factory.
“The trade unions expect they [Ford] will only confirm production of the Mondeo, but no guarantees to keep the plant open, which is very bad,” said Kennes. “I would not be surprised if there would be some form of protest if that is the case tonight. At this point, it does not look good, does it?”
Should there be a union reaction to any news issuing from Detroit this evening, it would first originate at a Belgian metalworkers federation level, before the ABVV-FGTB became involved.
The umbrella trades union also cited the closure of Antwerp by Opel at the end of 2010 as a “copy” of what appears to be happening at Genk.
“The way management behaves is a copy of the way it happened in Antwerp,” said Kennes. “You have to be aware of what will be the communication of the management tonight. If they announce another six months post-ponement, then there will be a very big problem in Genk.
“You just let the blood run out and you die. You just forget to give the plant water and one day it is dead.”
Ford said recently it would build the new version of the Mondeo in Genk next year and has a labour contract to make mid-sized models there that runs to the end of 2014.
However, the automaker is only running at 63% of factory capacity in Europe, where it is thought 2012 pre-tax losses could reach US$1.1bn.
Neither Ford in the US or Europe was immediately available for comment.
