General strike in Belgium

Belgium is preparing for large-scale industrial action later this month, after turn-out at an earlier demonstration was much bigger than expected.

All three of the country’s union confederations are calling on their members to take part in a one-day national strike on 15 December to protest against the new government’s plans to cut living standards and benefits and increase the retirement age (see Labour Research, November 2014, page 8).

As part of their campaign, the unions organised a demonstration in Brussels on Thursday 6 November. Although a working day, more than 120,000 people took part, according to the unions, and the police accept that it was more than 100,000. For Belgium, with around 11 million inhabitants, this is a massive turn-out.

Marie-Hélène Ska, general secretary of the largest union confederation, the CSC, said afterwards: “People who have never been on a demonstration told us: this time I going to join you — we’ve had enough.”