Belgium -National strike over pensions and lack of consultation -December 23, 2011

The three public sector union federations supported the national strike action on Thursday 22 December in protest at the new government's plans for pension reform and its failure to have any consultation with the unions concerning these plans. The changes to pensions will mean working longer for a lower level of benefit as the effective retirement age is increased and the period for calculating pensions is increased from the last five years to the last 10 years in the job. Workers of all ages would be affected if the reforms go through unchanged. On Wednesday rail workers already started wildcat strikes in the south of the country and parts of Brussels. The Belgian rail system as a whole stopped operating from late on Wednesday evening and other public services including buses, trams and the metro, as well as postal deliveries were shut down in the 24-hour strike. Government buildings closed and hospital worked on emergency schemes (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 November 2011).

English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/451
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/22/belgium-strike-idUSL6E7NL36T20111222

Dutch: http://www.acodonline.be/artikels/persbericht.aspx?nr=2974

French: http://www.cgsp.be/code/fr/frame910d.html?id_page=8

 

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl or the communications officer of the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.