The socialist trades union ABVV says the De Wever government’s coalition agreement is ‘indigestible’ and promptly called a general strike. It adds that the strike is not the end of an action plan, but the beginning of a marathon of protest’.
No date for the socialist union’s general strike has yet been decided. First, Belgium’s unions are taking part in a demonstration on 13 February that was already planned. That protest initially focused on the public services, but Christian ACV announced on Tuesday morning that the focus of the protest would be widened.
‘It is clear that the coalition accord is a frontal assault on the entire world of work, despite the temporary reprieve for wage indexation and the capital gains tax that (Flemish socialist) Vooruit obtained under pressure from social protests,’ the ABVV union says.
Earlier today, the Christian ACV trade union expressed its ‘anger’. ‘Many people haven't yet cottoned on. So in a first phase, we will provide people with information and raise awareness,’ says ACV spokesman David Vanbellingen.