Workers at Volkswagen’s Brussels plant spontaneously downed tools on Saturday night because of worries about their future.

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According to dpa-AFX news agency, some cars were still produced.


Around midnight, workers reportedly blocked a road that led into the plant in the Brussels suburb of Forest.


Interviewed by local television stations, they complained that the Volkswagen Group supervisory board meeting on Friday had not given them any information on the future of the Brussels plant. A plant meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.


The plant employs 5,400 assembling the Golf hatchback line.

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Although Volkswagen has recently agreed a restructuring programme for its six German plants, it has not confirmed plans for other European plants. Brussels  is at particular risk as Volkswagen has said it will invest in future Golf production in Wolfsburg, and it is known that Wolfsburg has recently suffered from under-utilisation, leading to speculation that management may site all Golf assembly there, and cease assembly in Brussels.


Belgium’s prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has invited the new Volkswagen management to meet with him, according to the Belgian news agency, Belga. Verhofstadt said that vehicle assembly still has a future in his country.