Nationwide rail strike announced

Rail unions have confirmed that they will embark on a nationwide 24-hour strike on Wednesday, October 3. A meeting between the unions and the federal minister for publicly owned companies, Paul Magnette, didn’t manage to break the deadlock. Unions argue that they took the decision to help commuters and improve the quality of rail services in the long run. The Belgian rail structure currently consists of three companies: SNCB, responsible for railway passenger traffic; Infrabel, in charge of rail infrastructure; and SNCB Holding, which was created as an umbrella structure to facilitate collaboration between the first two. In practice, the intended collaboration is far from smooth. Magnette suggests reducing the present structure to two companies: SNCB and Infrabel. However, unions are afraid that this will lead to redundancies, worse working conditions and a poorer service. They propose reducing the whole structure to one single company: “A ship is best steered with just one captain in charge,” they argue, and are calling for one CEO at the head of one big company. After consulting members on Thursday, the unions confirmed that a strike would be held. Last-chance talks with the minister have been tentatively planned for Monday. As things stand, the strike will go ahead at 22.00 next Tuesday until the same time on Wednesday, and is set to disrupt Eurostar passengers travelling between London and Brussels as well as hit the Thalys high-speed services between France, the Netherlands and Germany.