Work stops at Opel's Belgium plant

Production at General Motors' Opel plant in Antwerp came to a halt on Tuesday as workers protested about irregularities in their pay, a union official said.

"There's a spontaneous strike. The production line is stopped," the official said, adding about 150 workers had downed tools on the production line from about 10.30 a.m..

The plant was hit by industrial action from April to June last year after GM Europe announced 1,400 jobs, about a third of the workforce, would be cut due to plans not to build the next generation of its top-selling Astra model in Belgium.

At the end of May 2007, General Motors Europe (GME) revealed that it would cut significantly more jobs at the Opel factory in Antwerp - 1900 instead of 1400. In addition, 400 temporary positions were not be extended when their contracts expired in July. In other words. a 50% reduction in the workforce.

Part of this work was moved to Gliwice in Poland.