This Tuesday morning at 9:30 am, a new works council must take place between the unions and the management of Delhaize, while a first attempt at discussion had failed last week after barely fifteen minutes.
The exchanges promise to be under high tension. Security guards have also been hired to maintain calm during the meeting. Police are also on hand to protect security guards.
According to the unions, about 200 activists have already presented themselves around 8:30 am in the offices where the works council is held. On Monday, the unions were unhappy with the presence of security guards at a long-planned ordinary works council. Unions “will not tolerate” the presence of security guards in the bargaining room on Tuesday, said Wilson Wellens of the liberal ACLVB union.
The labor dispute at Delhaize has been raging for two weeks now after the distributor announced that it wanted to franchise the 128 stores that are not currently franchised. The consequences are significant for the customers of the majority of self-managed supermarkets.
Indignation after excavations during a works council at Delhaize: “The management treats the unions like terrorists”
No less than 76 remain closed on Tuesday morning and will not reopen today, while work has ceased at the distributor’s main depot in Zellik. A barrier filtering incoming and outgoing trucks, impacting the entire franchise network included, has been put in place.
This weekend, a franchise store in the center of Brussels was closed following a check by the Social Inspectorate for using undeclared people. For the unions, to pass all the stores under franchise, it is to face a “risk of deregulation”.
Brussels: Delhaize store on boulevard Anspach placed under seal