Mass layoffs at Caterpillar in Belgium

On Thursday the management of the US construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar announced that it was laying off 1,400 workers at its plant in Gosselies, Belgium, which has a total workforce of 3,700. In addition, 190 temporary contracts will not be renewed. In two French plants a further 200 jobs are to be axed.

The plant in Gosselies began operation in 1965 and mainly produces hydraulic excavators and wheel loaders for the European market. The job cuts will have devastating consequences for the city and the entire industrial region of Charleroi. Following the closure of numerous factories, unemployment in the area is around 20 percent.

The company management justified the mass layoffs by citing weak economic growth in Europe. “More fundamentally,” however, are the high costs of production in Belgium, a statement said. “At the moment it would be cheaper for us to import machines to Europe from other group sites than to produce them at Gosselies.”

“These measures though painful are nonetheless to regain competitiveness,” declared the managing director of Caterpillar Belgium, Nicolas Polutnik. The cuts were the only way to secure the existence of the plant beyond 2015, he argued. Read more >>