A day of strikes in Belgium in protest of the high cost of living led Brussels Airport to cancel all departures today and caused the suspension of many bus services across the country.
The unions are planning a demonstration in the center of the capital today, with organizers expecting up to 70,000 protesters.
Trains are running, in part to allow protesters to enter the capital.
Brussels-Zaventem Airport, the busiest in Belgium, has announced that it can not allow passenger flights to depart because the mobilizations also concern security personnel.
“All departure flights are canceled on June 20 (…) We urge all passengers not to arrive at the airport on Monday,” the airport management company “Brussels Airport” wrote on its Twitter account. A total of 232 flights were canceled, with the exception of a few transfer flights, affecting about 30,000 departing passengers, according to an airport spokesman.
Incoming commercial flights are also affected, with one in four running.
“I have not seen my wife for four months because I was working. I was supposed to meet her this morning in Istanbul. I might spend a few days in a hotel,” Merchant Marine Oleksandr Zhaykin told AFP. is in the airport lounge with hundreds of other passengers looking for a solution – either accommodation or another flight.
Passengers are asked to contact their airline to reschedule their trip. Part of the passenger traffic of the Anglo-German travel and tourism company TUI Group, departing from Brussels Airport, has been redirected to other regional airports in Belgium.
The country’s three largest unions – the General Confederation (FGTB), the Christian Confederation of Belgian Workers (CSC) and the Confederation of Liberals (CGSLB) – have called for a national day of action today to defend wages and labor. .
In this context, part of the staff of the security company G4S, which operates in Zaventem, decided to go on strike, a fact that had already led the Brussels airport to appeal from last Wednesday against the departures from this airport today.
Inflation reached 9% in June in Belgium, reflecting rapid price increases, largely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has hit grain supplies and spurred energy prices.
Prime Minister Alexandre de Croix has said that Belgian workers are more protected than their counterparts in most other EU countries because their wages are linked to inflation.
He told the public broadcaster RTBF that the government had extended tax cuts on gas, electricity and fuel sales by the end of the year.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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