On this early morning in mid-December, Andy, 54, and Fayçal, 40, are camped around a huge brazier, which warms the few tents where their colleagues are still sleeping, facing the gates of their factory. On the facade of it, a huge sign seems to taunt them: “Eight million cars produced here since 1949”. Eight million, but probably not much more: the Audi Brussels factory, in Forest, one of the municipalities in the Brussels region, will permanently close its doors at the end of February 2025. It will leave 3,000 workers behind, not counting the approximately 1,500 subcontractor workers who, for the most part, had the German brand as their only client. Production has actually already stopped, due to strikes by suppliers.
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Engaged in a vast restructuring and savings plan, was the Volkswagen group, owner of Audi, really going, for the first time in decades, to completely close one of its production sites? The threat had been looming since last summer, the ax fell in November: production of the Q8 e-tron electric model will be transferred to Mexico. “They think Mexicans will be able to afford a car for 100,000 euros? Or that America [du président élu Donald] Will Trump buy some? »questions Fayçal with a sneer, who above all wonders what his future and that of his three children will be.
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