The trade unions at bpost have called for a 24-hour strike from Monday at 10 p.m. The postal company itself reports this on Twitter. This may affect the mail distribution on Tuesday, and post offices may be closed.
The strike call is national, says spokeswoman Veerle Van Mierlo of bpost. It is not yet clear how great the disruption to services will be. In some places in Wallonia (Awans, Binche), strikes will already take place on Monday afternoon, the bpost spokesperson added.
According to Van Mierlo, the strike call is related to the transformation of bpost from a traditional mail player to an international e-commerce company, a process that also requires another organization. That process has been delayed for a while due to various CEO changes, says Van Mierlo, but has been accelerated again since the appointment of Jos Donvil as CEO of bpost Belgium.
Luc Tegethoff, national chairman of the trade union VSOA Post, refers to the ongoing collective labor agreement negotiations at bpost and to “reorganisations here and there”. According to him, these are also related to Amazon’s decision to develop its own network of parcel deliverers. As a result, parcel volumes for bpost have fallen in several places, “especially in Wallonia and Brussels”, and full-time equivalents should disappear, “without being in a story of naked redundancies”, says Tegethoff.
The unions want to send a signal with the strike and increase the pressure to review the reorganizations, according to the VSOA member. For example, talks are still being held with Amazon about possible cooperation, which may result in volumes rising again. “We want to go along with the management’s story, but not at the expense of job losses,” says Tegethoff. The trade unionist expects that the strike will mainly cause nuisance in Brussels and Wallonia.
It is not the only strike announced on Monday. From March 9 in the evening to March 10 in the evening, the railway unions will also stop working.
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