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January 31, 2012

Belgian Workers Hold General Strike to Protest E.U. Meeting 
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Belgian workers staged the country's first general strike in almost two
decades Monday to protest a European Union meeting in Brussels. The
strike shut down Belgium's trains, buses, schools and the factories of
many major companies including Audi, Volvo and Coca Cola.

Marc Leemans, president of Belgium’s Christian Trade Union: “They
impose a policy of austerity, and this is not creating a good
perspective for Europe because this is in fact spreading poverty in
Europe. What we need is a policy that creates growth, that creates jobs,
and if we don't have that policy, then we will always have a very
difficult situation, and we will get poorer and poorer, and that's not
the Europe we want."



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