Unions representing security agents at Charleroi Airport (BCSA) blame the airport's security management for a one-day strike there on Monday and the ensuing collateral damage.
“Security agents are not pawns that we divide and move according to our goodwill,” the FGTB, CSC and CGSLB (socialist, Christian and liberal federations respectively), said in a press release issued on Monday afternoon at the end of the strike by staff of the Security Masters company, which seriously disrupted the operations at airport .
The federations admitted that strikes can have serious consequences from both a financial standpoint - for the airport - and "a human one, for all the travellers who could not take their flight.” However, they indicated that they had tried until the eve of the strike action to convince the management of BSCA Security to reconsider its decision to split passenger screening between two service providers.
“The agents regret the disruption caused to travellers and other workers on the site,” said the federations, arguing at the same time that the passengers were the collateral damage of BSCA Security’s "obstinacy."
On Monday, the airport issued a short press release indicating that its board of directors “unanimously" supported the decision by BSCA Security to share passenger screening between two operators.
"This sharing is essential to remedy the operational difficulties caused by a single provider," it explained, adding that the rights of the operators’ staff were preserved.
