The Flemish Government is breaking its promises. It is once again cutting millions from the budgets of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT and many other Flemish cultural organisations. It’s an attack on the high-quality media we produce for you.
This statement is published on behalf of socialist ACOD, Christian ACV and liberal VSOA.
The following is editorial content by VRT journalists:
VRT unions take strike action
Strike action is underway at Flemish public broadcaster VRT. The strike is backed by all three VRT unions, the socialist ACOD, the Christian ACV and the liberal VSOA. The strike is impacting on programming.
The VRT is being forced by the Flemish government to make a further saving of over 10 million euros. For VRT staff, this is “one cut too many”, socialist ACOD’s Joke Kerkhofs says. “The management has negotiated a management agreement with the Flemish government, but apparently it’s just a scrap of paper.”
“Back in 2022, we already had an incredibly harsh transformation plan forced down our throats. That resulted in more than 50 outright redundancies and the outsourcing of soap ‘Thuis’. Well, we can no longer outsource ‘Thuis’ now, and we can no longer make those 50 people redundant. We’ve definitely reached a limit.”
Kerkhofs refers to “an ideological choice”. “We are a public broadcaster, but we are not being given the resources to fulfil our remit. That is a huge problem for democracy. We must inform people without them having to rummage behind a paywall. If you start cutting back on that, you’re on the wrong track.”