Thousands of steelworkers marched through the streets of Brussels on Wednesday, calling for urgent intervention from the European Union to support the struggling steel industry. The protest comes as Belgian cinemas screen a documentary highlighting the sector’s decline, underscoring growing concerns over job losses and economic challenges.
“L’acier a coulé dans nos veines which means “Steel flowed through our veins,” hit theatres as the European steel industry is now hit with high energy costs and Chinese competition compounding a long crisis.
As per the director, Thierry Michel, the movie is from the “workers’ point of view,” showing seven decades of steelmaking in Belgium’s southern Wallonia region.
It’s a “parable on globalisation and the triumph of capital”, the 72-year-old Belgian filmmaker known for his socio-political documentaries on the Democratic Republic of Congo told AFP.
In November, Eurofer said that EU and its members took immediate actions about Europe’s steel industry facing “irreversible decline,” including trade protections and ensuring affordable clean energy supplies.
The sector lost almost 100,000 jobs in the past 15 years, “with more cuts looming”, the group said, adding Europe imports 27 percent of its steel, which undermines domestic production.
European producers are struggling with excess industrial capacity in China, which has led to a surge in cheap exports. Critics argue that these exports are driven by Chinese government support.
“All European steel sites are at risk of closure in 2025,” the president of steelmaker ArcelorMittal France, Alain Le Grix de la Salle, has told French lawmakers.
On Wednesday, several thousand workers marched through Brussels, waving trade union flags and holding signs reading “European Union, wake up!” and “save our steel”.
The EU Commission has promised to publish an action plan to revamp the European economy and support local industries in the coming weeks.
For years thousands of Italian, Polish and Yugoslav immigrants worked alongside the Belgians at that and other sites — in often harsh conditions.
The European steel industry currently employs more than 300,000 people, including thousands in Belgium, according to Eurofer.