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BRUSSELS (AFP) –
All Carrefour supermarkets in Belgium were closed by strike action Saturday, following an appeal by trade unions to protest at plans by the world's second largest retailer to cut jobs and close stores.
In all 61 supermarkets and 56 hypermarkets were shut for the day.
Carrefour, number two behind US retail giant Wal-Mart, announced on Tuesday that 1,672 jobs would go and 21 loss-making stores close under restructuring plans. It also intends to freeze salaries for its remaining staff.
The plan is the latest in a growing line of announced job cuts in the kingdom in previous months, with notably the closure of an Opel auto plant in Antwerp.
On Wednesday strike action forced the closure of a third of Carrefour's outlets in Belgium.
Carrefour Belgium has warned that the impact of a national strike on Saturday will only exacerbate the problem, costing the company some 14 million euros in losses.
"The strike will cost a fortune. On top of that we will lose customers. We therefore have every interest in ensuring the strike doesn't continue," Gerard Lavinay, the company's executive director for Belgium told the local l'Echo daily paper.
