Mediation and Conciliation in Collective Labor Conflicts in Belgium

Abstract

A large foreign owned company has multiple production facilities in Belgium, one of its prime production locations. In the years leading up to the conflict, the company suffers from a drop in demand for production in Europe because of the financial crisis and its own activities in other regions of the world. Restructuring is announced and production is dialed back in Belgium which results in over 200 people becoming temporarily unemployed. There are smallscale employee actions and protests regarding the current situation leading to discussions at the organizational level. A couple of years later, further cost cutting is announced and one of the facilities stops production for an entire month resulting in economical unemployment of over 400 employees. The company reports a heavy loss and has to fire dozens of employees while announcing further restructuring. Coinciding with the ongoing restructuring, the CEO announces his departure from the company. During the reorganizations, biennial negotiations commence regarding the Collective Labor Agreement. Unions wanted to connect a strong social plan to regular negotiations, however, these negotiations failed rather quickly as two of the three major unions refuse to sign the proposed Collective Labor Agreement.