Can an alliance between SMEs and unions secure Charleroi’s economic future?
Business for Charleroi president Sébastien Croegaert has called on the metropolitan area’s SMEs, workers and trade unions to build a new economic alliance, arguing that smaller employers need a stronger voice in regional decision-making. The proposal, published on 10 July, has not yet produced a formal agreement or a documented response from the main unions.
Charleroi must connect new investment with residents who need stable work and businesses that struggle to recruit. A credible SME–union compact could turn training into durable jobs and reduce costly vacancies; an imbalanced one could instead produce demands for flexibility without sufficient guarantees on pay, conditions or security.
, president of (), used a public intervention on 10 July to propose a new alliance between the metropolitan area’s SMEs, workers and trade unions. B4C says it represents more than 300 entrepreneurs and business decision-makers, while -wide data from show why Croegaert is concentrating on smaller firms: companies employing fewer than 250 people account for about 65% of employment in Belgium’s non-financial market economy. His appeal has opened a debate, but no negotiating framework, joint declaration or union endorsement has yet been announced.
Croegaert, who also runs the printing company , presents the initiative as an attempt to move beyond habitual mistrust between employers and organised labour. His argument is that locally controlled companies share more interests with their employees than conventional confrontations suggest: they depend on the same skills base, transport links and public services, and their investment decisions usually remain tied to the region. He also distinguishes between SMEs and multinational groups, noting that a small employer has less room to absorb a prolonged dispute, an abrupt cost increase or the loss of a skilled employee.
That distinction is economically relevant, but it does not erase conflicts over wages, schedules, safety or restructuring. A cooperative model would need to specify what workers receive in return for greater flexibility or restraint. Without enforceable commitments on job quality, training and consultation, an alliance could remain an attractive slogan rather than a durable social bargain. Neither the –Sud Hainaut nor the has been shown in the available reporting to have accepted Croegaert’s proposal, and their formal positions should not be inferred from his intervention.
The timing is pointed. At , unions negotiated for 16 hours over the social plan affecting up to 167 workers in the steelworks’ hot phase, according to La DH. The and said the final proposal doubled the initially offered supplementary compensation, but the episode still ended with the prospect of redundancies and only about 220 full-time jobs remaining at the cold-phase operation. It illustrated both the value and the limits of social dialogue: negotiation improved the exit terms, yet it could not preserve the industrial activity concerned.
’s economy is now much broader than the heavy-industry image that still follows the city. The Walloon mobility administration’s metropolitan plan recorded 4,806 businesses in the municipality in 2020 and classified 85.6% of local economic activity as tertiary. Across the wider planning area, services represented roughly 77% of enterprises and secondary activities 21%. Those figures describe a service-led economy that nevertheless retains important industrial, engineering, aerospace, logistics and construction capabilities.
New investment provides a more optimistic counterweight to industrial job losses. RTBF reported that €86 million in European support was allocated to the expansion of the A6K/E6K technology and training hub, whose stated objective is to increase annual learner capacity from 1,000 to 10,000 from the 2026 academic year. The Walloon government has also selected a €50 million aircraft-dismantling project involving Sabena Engineering and the Comet group near airport, with projections of about 100 direct jobs. These are promising sectoral building blocks, although official forecasts should not be treated as jobs already created.
The harder question is whether local residents can reach and qualify for those opportunities. put ’s employment rate for people aged 20 to 64 at 67.1% in 2024, compared with 76.9% in and 72.3% nationally. Meanwhile, the federal statistical office found that small Belgian businesses had a 6.42% vacancy rate in the final quarter of 2024, against 3.80% for medium-sized and large firms. The comparison suggests that the problem is not simply a shortage of jobs or candidates, but a persistent mismatch involving qualifications, working conditions, mobility and recruitment capacity.
This is where Croegaert’s proposition could become practical. SMEs could identify shared training needs instead of trying to solve them company by company; unions could help shape programmes that lead to recognised qualifications and sustainable employment; and public bodies could link subsidies more clearly to hiring, retention and skills transfer. ’s A6K/E6K ecosystem offers one possible setting because it places employers and training under the same roof. The Walloon administration says 128 million euros supported investment projects at 1,127 companies in 2025, up from 115 million euros for 1,500 companies in 2024, providing another policy lever if outcomes are measured carefully rather than only announced.
For households, the debate is less abstract than institutional language makes it sound. A functioning agreement could mean a clearer route from training to a stable payslip, more predictable working arrangements and fewer vacancies that companies cannot fill. For a small business, it could reduce recruitment costs and production interruptions. A weak agreement, however, could ask employees to accept flexibility while leaving wages, progression and employment security vague.
’s history makes the balance particularly sensitive. Large industrial employers once concentrated investment, employment and union organisation in a limited number of sites. The emerging economy is more fragmented, spread among smaller service and technology companies as well as a reduced number of industrial anchors. That dispersal can make the region more resilient to the collapse of any one employer, but it also makes collective training, worker representation and strategic coordination more difficult.
The next meaningful development would therefore be a response from the , , sectoral federations and public employment and training bodies such as . Concrete tests include whether convenes structured talks, whether the parties define measurable commitments, and whether pilot projects follow in recruitment, mobility or continuing training. Until then, the Croegaert B4C entrepreneur proposal is best understood as an invitation to negotiate—not evidence that ’s employers and unions have already found common ground.
Impact
Regional — The proposal concerns Wallonia’s largest post-industrial urban economy and could influence how employers, unions, Le Forem and training providers coordinate recruitment and skills policy across Charleroi Métropole.
Local — For Charleroi and the surrounding metropolitan area, any agreement would primarily affect how SMEs communicate vacancies, shape training and coordinate recruitment with unions and Le Forem. The need is concrete: Wallonia’s employment rate was 67.1% in 2024, while Belgian small firms recorded a 6.42% vacancy rate in the fourth quarter. Local workers could benefit if cooperation produces accessible training and stable jobs, but no commitments on wages, conditions, security or implementation have yet been negotiated. Thy-Marcinelle’s restructuring underlines the immediate pressure on local employment.
What it means for you
There is no new agreement, entitlement, application process or legal obligation for workers or businesses yet. Charleroi jobseekers should continue using existing Le Forem vacancy and training channels rather than expect a new programme. SME owners and employees should watch for a formal B4C proposal and responses from the FGTB and CSC, especially any commitments covering training access, recruitment, pay, working conditions and job security. The next meaningful milestone is not a fixed date but publication of negotiating partners, written terms or a pilot scheme. Until then, the initiative has no direct effect on contracts, wages, taxes or benefits.
Opposing perspectives
- B4C and participating SME owners
Croegaert’s camp argues that locally rooted SMEs and their employees depend on one another and should replace reflexive confrontation with practical cooperation on recruitment, training, retention and competitiveness. Smaller firms, it says, cannot absorb disruption or skills shortages as readily as multinational groups.
- FGTB and CSC worker representatives
The unions support meaningful social dialogue in principle, but their recent interventions in Charleroi emphasise job quality, consultation and enforceable protections. The Thy-Marcinelle negotiations show why worker representatives may demand concrete guarantees on employment, pay and conditions before endorsing an employer-led alliance.
- Walloon economic and training authorities
Regional authorities are investing in company support, technology campuses and industrial projects, suggesting that cooperation is necessary to match skills with vacancies. Their challenge is to demonstrate that public subsidies lead to additional, accessible and durable employment rather than projected jobs alone.
Who, where and what
Key people, places and terms in this story
Statbel is Belgium’s statistical office. It matters in these excerpts as a source for official national data on population, prices, road accidents and casualties, and EU-harmonised gender pay gap figures.
Walloon city at the centre of the proposed economic alliance.
Belgian region whose employment performance and SME economy frame the proposal.
Belgian region used as a comparison for Wallonia’s 2024 employment rate.
National context for SME employment and job-vacancy statistics.
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President of Business for Charleroi and author of the proposed SME–worker–union alliance.
Walloon city at the centre of the proposed economic alliance.
Belgian region whose employment performance and SME economy frame the proposal.
Belgian region used as a comparison for Wallonia’s 2024 employment rate.
National context for SME employment and job-vacancy statistics.
Metropolitan area whose employers, workers and institutions are addressed by the proposal.
Statbel is Belgium’s statistical office. It matters in these excerpts as a source for official national data on population, prices, road accidents and casualties, and EU-harmonised gender pay gap figures.
Charleroi employers’ network advocating a stronger SME voice in regional economic decisions.
Registered legal entity behind the Business for Charleroi network.
Abbreviated name used for Business for Charleroi.
Company for which Sébastien Croegaert serves as an administrator.
Socialist trade-union confederation identified as a potential party to local dialogue.
Christian trade-union confederation identified as a potential party to local dialogue.
Walloon public employment service that could coordinate recruitment and training.
Charleroi industrial employer whose hot-phase restructuring affected up to 167 workers in summer 2026.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceLa DH/Les Sports+ — Sébastien Croegaert de B4CPrimaryprimary· dhnet.be· 10 July 2026Retrieved 26 August 2026· 84 days ago· Dated
- View sourceBusiness for Charleroi — Club and leadershipprimary· b4c.beRetrieved 26 August 2026
- View sourceSébastien Croegaert — SME and social-dialogue proposalprimary· fr.linkedin.com· 10 July 2026Retrieved 26 August 2026· 84 days ago· Dated
- View sourceStatbel — Belgian enterprise-structure report 2023official· statbel.fgov.be· 1 September 2025Retrieved 26 August 2026· 396 days ago· Dated
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.