Serious traffic disruption in Brussels is expected to last throughout Tuesday morning as police unions are taking action on Rue de la Loi and Rue Belliard.
Trade unionists of the four unions representing police officers (ABVV, CSC Police, SNPS and SLFP Police) met this morning at Central Station and at 6:30 AM walked up the hill to the streets where their strike action was planned to take place.
"We advise you to avoid the sector of the Rue de la Loi (intersection with Loi - Regent) because of an action," the police announced on Twitter on Tuesday morning.
Nous vous conseillons d’éviter le secteur de la rue de la Loi (carrefour Loi - Régent) suite à une action #Bruxelles
Wij raden u aan om de sector van de Wetstraat te vermijden (kruispunt Wet - Regent) wegens een actie#Brussel pic.twitter.com/DFVvcspLEy — PolBru (@zpz_polbru) November 16, 2021
So far, the action has already brought traffic to a standstill on the city's inner ring road, while it is expected to continue and shift to block the access roads to Brussels Airport, where punctuality actions have also been launched, similar to those held last month.
Due to the demonstration, the Tervuren tunnel, Cinquantenaire tunnel and the tunnel Loi in the direction of the centre were closed, as well as the tunnel Arts-Loi, in both directions (Basilique/South). However, these reopened again just before 9:00 AM.
UPDATE 8u20 - acties politievakbonden veroorzaken een totale #gridlock op de Brusselse lanen en invalswegen, met vertragingen tot twéé uur. Als je dat kan, stel je verplaatsing met de auto naar het centrum of de EU-wijk dan uit. pic.twitter.com/GpaZEz6PcS
— Hajo Beeckman (@hajobeeckman) November 16, 2021
"Actions by police unions are causing a total gridlock on Brussels avenues and approach roads, with delays of up to two hours. If you can, postpone your trip by car to the centre or the EU district," the tweet reads.
Police unions started their daily protest actions on Monday. These are expected to last for over two months and will include a mixture of one-off actions as well as road blockades and especially thorough traffic checks.
On Monday, there was a brief meeting between the unions and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, however, these did not lead to the calling off of further action, according to reports from Het Laatste Nieuws.
"He promised that the government wants to talk and look for solutions. But we have been talking since May and it goes from bad to worse. There is nothing concrete on the table yet," Joery Dehaes of CSC Police said.
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The unions reaffirmed their intention to continue with disruptive action so long as negotiations fail to address their concerns. However, they have not publicised the time or location of future actions in order to maintain an element of surprise. Protests over the coming months will not be focussed entirely in Brussels but are expected to expand to other regions, broadening disruptions.
"We are counting on the surprise effect. The actions will last two months and get worse day by day," Carlo Médo, president of the SNPS, said.
