Strike at Lanxess' butyl plant in Belgium will stop production

Zwijndrecht, Belgium - Trade unions at Lanxess Rubber NV in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, have called on members to begin strike action over a dispute involving bonus payments. Lanxess said it expects all output from the plant to cease while the strike continues.

The factory has capacity for around 130 kt/year of butyl and halobutyl rubber following a capacity expansion that came on stream in early 2006. This represents almost half Lanxess total butyl capacity. The company also operates a plant at Sarnia, Canada, which is nearing completion of an expansion to around 140 kt/year.

A year ago, Lanxess management announced a plan to achieve savings of Euro 20 million annually at the Zwijndrecht plant. The company said the savings would be achieved through structural measures such as asset consolidation and process optimisation, but did not expand on the measures nor did the company mention any job losses at the time.

Lanxess said the workers recently voted by majority for a payment contract excluding a range of bonus payments in favour of a fixed-pay scheme. Lanxess recently introduced a global bonus scheme to other employees, but hourly-paid employees at Zwijndrecht were not part of that agreement, according to Lanxess management.

“Breaking social peace within weeks of concluding a CLA with the management is an irresponsible act”, said Paul Van Damme, Managing Director of Lanxess Rubber NV. Lanxess' management said it is deeply concerned about the perspective of the Zwijndrecht site and negative consequences for its 500 employees.

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Press release from Lanxess