Police unions are holding a strike action at Brussels Airport Zaventem and Charleroi on Friday (today), to demand that the Federal Government honours the agreements made, including a pay rise for police officers and an early retirement scheme.
To make their dissatisfaction clear, police unions are carrying out several actions: earlier, they called on officers not to issue fines for traffic violations from 15 December to 15 January wherever possible, they took action in the streets of Brussels on Tuesday, and now they targetted the airports.
"We are not going to prevent people from getting to their destinations by blocking things, but there will be some inconvenience," Carlo Medo of the NSPV police union said on Flemish radio on Friday. "We understand that this is not nice for travellers, but we want to show up and, by handing out flyers, explain to people why we are taking action."
At both the Zaventem and Charleroi airports, some 200 police officers will meet the VSOA, NSPV, ACV and ACOD unions to join the action until 13:00. While they are not calling for a work stoppage, the airports are not ruling out delays, especially for identity checks. Additionally, the unions demand that the government honours agreements made, including a pay rise for police officers.
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"Young people are no longer choosing the police profession. At the airport alone, we see a shortage of about 100 officers," Medo said. "This is because of the violence against the police that is increasing and not being prevented, but also because of the lack of decent pay. We have been negotiating a substantial pay rise for 20 years."
The government also wants to end an early retirement scheme "against all agreements," he explained. "Now some officers can stop working from 58 under very strict conditions." From next year, that scheme will die out and by 2030, 63 will become the earliest possible retirement age.
Even that adjustment was not agreed upon, the unions said. "The government has broken its word to police personnel."
