Thursday strike: no flights, no rubbish collections

Thursday’s general strike is expected to cause major disruptions, with no flights at Brussels or Charleroi airports and no rubbish collections in many parts of the capital.

Unions are expecting at least 60,000 people to march on 13 February in protest against "imbalances" in the federal government’s coalition agreement, namely a weaker social safety net for the unemployed, reductions in welfare benefits, the increasing flexibility demanded of employees, severe cutbacks in public services and changes to pensions.

“It’s something that is very much on people's minds,” said ACV union spokesperson David Vanbellinghen. “We get a lot of questions from people.”

Brussels Airport issued a warning about disruption to its operations, noting that a large number of baggage handlers and security personnel will be striking at the airport in support of the union demonstration.

Airlines will contact the affected passengers directly but Brussels Airport is asking travellers not to go to the airport on Thursday. Arriving passenger flights will also be cancelled, as air traffic controllers have voted to join the strike.

No flights will depart from Charleroi Airport either due to the strike. “There will be insufficient staff to ensure operations are carried out safely,” the airport said.

Public transport networks TEC (Wallonia), Stib (Brussels) and De Lijn (Flanders) are expecting significant disruption, as well.

No strike notice has been yet filed with Belgian railway operator SNCB, but some rail unions are planning a wider mobilisation from 23 February.

Brussels’ waste collection authority also expects the demonstration to cause serious disruption to operations on Thursday, warning that many municipalities will be affected from Wednesday until Thursday evening.

Bruxelles Propreté is asking residents of Brussels to refrain from putting their bins out as much as possible and to put them out for collection the next time it is due, in order to avoid waste being left on the street for too long.

This advice applies especially to residents of municipalities who normally put out their rubbish on Wednesday evening.

Additional sanitation services will also be affected, such as waste collection from public containers, from businesses or residents of apartment buildings, recycling centres and bulk waste collections from homes.

Other public services will be operating at reduced capacity, with many government departments and some public hospitals potentially forced to provide a minimum service. Disruption is expected to the postal service and potentially even in the education sector.

The national demonstration will start at 10.30 on Thursday and pass through the centre of Brussels.