The Belgian railway unions CGSP/ACOD, CSC Transcom/ACV and SLFP/VSOA have started a strike that will last until the late hours of Friday 30 January. It is expected to severely disrupt rail operations, but freight continues to operate as usual for now.
The protest is directed against plans to end permanent appointments at the railway company NMBS and the rail network manager Infrabel, against planned pension reforms and reforms at HR Rail, the legal employer of railway personnel, and against budget cuts at NMBS, our colleagues at SpoorPro.nl write.
The unions also fear that the qualified two-thirds majority in social dialogue – which was previously required for important decisions in the joint committee – could be circumvented in the future, making decisions possible without the approval of at least one of the unions.
Rail freight not (yet) impacted
In a comment to RailFreight.com, Infrabel explains that all signalling boxes are currently open and that it has communicated this to all operators. The strike is aimed at passenger traffic, according to the infrastructure manager, so the impact on freight operation is limited.
There is no impact on the previously allocated time slots for freight trains. In other words, there is no deviation from the standard plan in the freight sector.