It has been three weeks since the management of the Delhaize group announced its intention to franchise, in other words entrust to independents, its last 128 “integrated” stores, that is to say stores which belong to Delhaize and which the firm manages directly.
A new works council was held Tuesday morning at 9:30 am at the group’s headquarters in Zellik and ended around noon. Since March 7, the date of the announcement, discussions between management and the unions have been deadlocked.
The third works council failed to change the situation. “The management told us that they had done their job by receiving us three times”, explained a union official at the end of the meeting.. “It’s a joke, but we’re not going to let go“, he added.
“We asked questions and management gave us answers, but not on the fundamental question of whether there is room for negotiation and what we can negotiate on“said CGSLB union secretary Wilson Wellens.”They say there is no room for negotiation and see no need“, he added.
Already in the morning, thehe first echoes that reached us of this new meeting between the management of Delhaize and the unions indicated that we were not taking the path of dialogue hoped for by the unions and the personnel of Delhaize. “Management only listens to itself. It’s a dialogue of the deaf” we learned from a union source. “We have just repeated that the plan must be withdrawn. The management refuses this withdrawal“, wrote a union source present around the table.
On the one hand, the unions continue to demand the withdrawal of the plan. On the other, the management is sticking to its positions.
On site, outside the building where the works council was held, nearly 600 members of staff were present.
Prior to the meeting, Rosetta Scibilia, a Delhaize employee for 36 years said: “we expect things to happen differently than during the first two works councils. That is to say that there is an openness of the company, that it listens to us. The plan they offer us is undrinkable, the workers don’t want it“. Francine Mathieu, employee for 35 years at Delhaize, cashier in the Liège region, said she still had “a small glimmer of hope“, that the leaders of Delhaize “realize they can’t do this“. “We gotta show up, we gotta tell ’em we’re human beings and we’re not sale items“, she adds to the microphone of the RTBF.
At this time, there are no more meetings scheduled between Delhaize management and the unions to discuss the plan. The next extraordinary works council is set for April 24 and should concern the implementation of the management plan.
Until then, the management is now counting on a social conciliator. She asked the Minister of Employment, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, to appoint one. “Delhaize thus wishes to underline, once again, its willingness to invest in social dialogue and will continue to do so.“, adds the supermarket chain. Management says it hopes to obtain a “equivalent signal” from the trade unions and asks them to make all supermarkets accessible to customers again.
The Minister of Employment has already reacted. “NWe had to note that the parties failed (once again) to engage in a real dialogue on the announcement made by management on 7/3. No further consultation is currently planned at local/company level on this matter. I therefore asked the social conciliator to take charge of the file and to bring the parties together for a consultation. I call on the two banks for an open and constructive dialogue“, communicates Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Minister of Employment.
For their part, the unions have so far promised to harden the movement.