Saturday March 13 2010 12:05
3°C / 7°C
As many as 300 people employed by the Flemish public broadcaster VRT – about 11% of its entire workforce – could lose their jobs in a coming round of spending cuts, according to unions in a memo released last week. The management of the VRT is due to present its spending plans to the board of directors on 15 March.
In January, the number of property transactions rose by 11.6% compared to December last year, representing an increase of nearly 21% on the same period in 2009. In the last quarter of 2009, in fact, business was back to the levels achieved before the crisis started. The KFBN notices no major increase in prices, which may be because sellers are showing more flexibility in order to ensure sales.
“Another six months, and everything will be ready,” forecasts Frank Coenen, managing director of Belwind, based in Zaventem. “We’re breaking world speed records here, with 56 foundations – 55 for the turbines and one for the high-voltage station,” he said. Work started in September last year, and next month they plan to bring the turbines out to sea.
By comparison, another wind energy park on the Flemish coast at Thorntonbank, being constructed by C-Power, has taken nearly three years to install six turbines.
Although chocolate is normally associated with the New World, and especially Mexico where it originated, Ivory Coast in West Africa is now the main producer. Together with Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, the Ivory Coast supplies 70% of the world’s chocolate. Right now, production is down and stocks are low, leading to the highest prices since 1985. Production in those four countries, however, is the work of two million small farmers and their families. Primary producers are poor, often relying on the labour of low-wage children.
Young people also think having their own business is an achievable goal. However, existing programmes to encourage young people to go into business for themselves tend to address this too late in their school careers, said Parys. This is particularly true in the general humanities education section ASO, whose students turn out to be the least interested in becoming business owners. The most entrepreneurial students are to be found in the technical (TSO), professional (BSO) and economy (EHK) streams.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the barricades, a group of organisations representing employers issued a manifesto and a petition demanding they be allowed to run their businesses as free entrepreneurs.
Both sides claim to have the same goal in mind: the recovery of the economy and the stimulation of employment. But the positions are father apart than that claim would suggest.
The plan actually involved cutting a total of 299 jobs, not all of which could be covered by early retirement or other unforced redundancies. But about 40 jobs would have been created in a new customer service division. Just two days before the end of the dispute, the differences seemed unbridgeable. A second attempt to bring management and unions together flopped on Wednesday, 20 January, with local negotiators unable to make a move without being overruled by senior management in Brazil.
The workers are protesting at plans by the company to cut 263 jobs. They have been blockading the Leuven plant since 7 January. Such a lengthy stoppage is unusual in recent Belgian industrial history, and lay-offs equal to or greater than those announced by InBev have not led to the same result when announced elsewhere. But InBev is profitable: the latest results showed profits of €3 billion on sales of €27bn. Against that background, unions said, the cutting of so many jobs is “decadent”.
The decision confirms rumours that have been circulating since November, when plans were announced for restructuring in Central Europe. Despite attempts by the company to quell speculation, rumours were rife that a round of cuts in Western Europe would follow.
Other owners plan to serve lunch smoke free while allowing smoking in the afternoon and evening – although this may bring them to the attention of the 100 health inspectors who have been sent out across the country to check on implementation of the new law. In the first three months, federal health ministry inspectors will only issue warnings, but after that fines will be applicable.
Flanders Today is an independent weekly newsmagazine about Flanders
