Workers at Ford's car factory in the Belgian town of
Genk are turning to China in the hope that an investor will take over
their plant after it closes at the end of the year, local media
reported Saturday, according to dpa.
Employees at the factory are collecting money to pay for an advert in
a large Chinese newspaper, according to Belgian daily Het Belang van
Limburg.
'We are 4,000 workers in a European car assembly factory. This
enterprise will close its doors on December 31, 2014 and we are
looking for a new employer,' reads a draft text prepared for the
advert.
In the coming weeks, the factory workers plan to distribute flyers
calling on their colleagues to support the initiative. They need to
raise 2,700 euros (3,585 dollars) to pay for advertising space in a
Chinese mass-circulation daily, Het Belang van Limburg wrote.
US carmaker Ford decided in 2012 to close the factory in the
north-east of Belgium, where 4,300 people were employed at the time
to manufacture the mid-range Mondeo, as well as the S-Max and the
Galaxy vans.
It attributed the closure to a drop in demand for cars in western
Europe since 2007.