Christian union wins majority of support

Belgium’s Christian union confederation, the CSC/ACV, has once again gained most support from Belgium’s workers in the four-yearly elections for the country’s works councils and health and safety committees.

Trade unions in Belgium are split between competing confederations with clear political traditions. The CSC/ACV is part of the Christian grouping of unions, parties and social institutions like health insurance, while FGTB/ABVV is part of the socialist movement.

With 94% of the results now in, figures from Belgium’s labour ministry shows that the CSC/ACV has clearly won most support in what are called the “social elections”. At works council level (works councils must be set up in companies with at least 100 employees), it gained 52.6% of the votes and at the level of health and safety committees (obligatory once there are 50 employees) it won 53.6%.

The FGTB/ABVV gained the support of 36.1% of those voting for works councils and 36.5% of those voting for health and safety committees. The remaining votes went to the liberal CGSLB/ACLVB, which got the support of just under 10% of the voters in both cases, and to smaller union groupings. Under Belgian law, only unions can nominate works council and safety committee members.

The figures show little change compared to the 2004 results although there was a slight increase in the number of women elected.