Belgium general strike grounds airlines, disrupts Brussels public transport

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Inti Landauro

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -A general strike held in Belgium on Tuesday grounded most airplanes at the two main airports and disrupted public transport in Brussels.

About 80,000 people demonstrated between Brussels’ Gare du Nord and Gare du Midi train stations, crossing the entire city centre, Brussels police estimated. A few dozen people were detained by police following incidents that included fires set on the capital’s big boulevards.

The strike was the latest in a series of protests this year against the government’s proposals to reform pensions and the labour market.

All flights due to depart from Brussels International Airport and about half of those scheduled to land were cancelled as staff from the security firm providing X-ray screening walked out on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the airport said.

No plane is taking off or landing at the country’s second largest airport, in Charleroi, 60 km (40 miles) south of Brussels, according to its website.

Most of the Brussels underground train, bus and tram lines were cut as a result of the strike, public transport operator STIB said in a post on social media platform X.

“What really mobilises people are pensions,” Thierry Bodson, leader of the FGTB union, said on the French-language state radio station RTBF on Tuesday. FGTB has more than 1.5 million members, according to its website.

Bodson added that the reform would not only reduce income for future retirees but also introduce uncertainty by changing how state pensions are calculated.

“The pension at 67 years old is a challenge for people who do physical work,” said civil servant Michael Mary, 53, while he was marching in Brussels. The planned reform would add conditions to people who want to retire early. The pension age is being gradually moved up to 67.

The strikers, led by the country’s main unions and backed by activist groups such as Greenpeace and Oxfam, are opposing the ruling federal coalition led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever, which announced a series of reforms seeking to cut government spending.

De Wever, from the nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), became prime minister in February and now heads a predominantly right-wing coalition. He has pledged to reduce deficits without raising taxes but is facing challenges in finalising next year’s budget.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Additional reporting by Milan Berckmans; Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Olivier Holmey)