The Christian trade union has announced it will maintain the planned cabin crew strike at Brussels Airlines from Wednesday. The impact on air traffic during the height of the Francophone Carnival holiday period is yet unknown.
Strike action is expected to occur over a three-day period from Wednesday 28 February through to Friday 1 March.
For the time being, the socialist and liberal unions are not participating in the action, pending a meeting with union management on Wednesday morning. However, they may join the strike afterwards.
Didier Lebbe of the CNE confirmed that while a conciliation meeting took place on Tuesday, the strike remains "unavoidable". The CNE and the ACV Puls will therefore go ahead with the action for the three days in question.
'Disastrous social dialogue'
"The social dialogue has been disastrous since Lufthansa took over Brussels Airlines," Lebbe stressed. He added that "the CEO is never present and unresponsive" and that "managing 3,000 people requires a bit more consideration."
The union member passionately criticised that the "agreements that were forced upon us" during the takeover by Lufthansa. He argued that they are unworkable, "unless we want to work like Ryanair – but nobody makes a career there. The staff at Brussels Airlines are working more and earning less. They are increasingly exhausted by the proposed flight combinations."
"We want written proposals to present to the staff," Lebbe concluded.
