General Motors Europe announced to unions on Jan. 21 that it is to close its Opel auto production plant in Antwerp, in a blow that Belgian industry said would cost 5,000 jobs all told.

The site will be closed over "the course of 2010," an Opel statement said. A union representative immediately announced a blockade, saying no finished cars would be allowed out of the plant.

In Germany, Opel directors said the factory directly employs just over 2,600 people. Previously, it was thought that certain senior management figures on-site would be retained and re-assigned.

Belgian technological industry federation Agoria said at least 5,000 jobs in the region could be lost amid the long-term knock-on effects of the closure. Spokesman Rene Konings said sub-contractors would be spared immediate hardship through contracts with other plants within the group's European division.

"They have announced to us their intention to proceed towards collective redundancy and the closure of the business," said Walter Cnop, of the CSC union's metalworkers' branch. Cnop said no production was planned on Jan. 22 or Jan. 25 anyway, but that from Jan. 26, "the factory will remain blocked until such time as we decide to let finished cars out."

He underlined: "We're not stopping anyone going in, individual parts can get in."

Workers began blocking access to the northern Belgian factory on Jan. 20, fearing the axe would finally fall at the planned meeting.

"It's an absolute catastrophe for Belgian workers and manufacturing," Cnop added, slamming management "arrogance" and a decision he said was "based on political considerations in no way assessed on economic grounds."

View article on one page