Coastal mayors plead for end to train union strike threats

The mayors of the municipalities along the Belgian coast have asked the train drivers’ union ASTB to lift their threat to strike every Saturday during the summer holiday period. 

ASTB drivers are planning the day-long strikes – on 18 and 25 July and every Saturday in August – because their ongoing demand for better pay and conditions have not been addressed, the union said. The two sides are due to meet tomorrow in the hope of reaching an agreement.

“This is the seventh time in seven months that we’re confronted with train strikes, and now that the summer Saturdays are also being targeted it looks like our bank accounts are all going to be turning red,” commented Patrick De Klerck, mayor of Blankenberge and chair of the committee of coastal mayors.

The coastal towns attract some six million day-trippers every year, with about one in 10 arriving by public transport. “The train ought to be the ideal means of transport, but the union’s actions will have the opposite effect,” De Klerck said. “This year we’ve managed to schedule a lot of extra trains, but that effort will have been wasted. This is a slap in the face.”

Photo by LimoWreck/Wikipedia