The Brussels fire service will hold a strike day in December when they will completely stop working, they decided at a staff meeting on Wednesday morning together with the VSOA and ACOD unions.
The Brussels fire service and paramedics issued a strike notice on Tuesday and now decided to also use it for a day in December. The exact date has yet to be determined but a full strike has been confirmed.
"Protesting the way we always did by spraying facades and blocking traffic is of no use, the staff said. They are promised things that are never carried out," Eric Labourdette, trade unionist for VSOA Local and Regional Governments told Belga News Agency. "They have now decided to go on strike, in the strictest sense of the word: they will not go to work."
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The unions are denouncing the shortage of personnel, while the number of interventions has been increasing for years. They also reclaim all the pension benefits that they have lost due to the Government's reforms earlier this year.
"We will now organise ourselves. We remain responsible people and cannot just remove all emergency services from the barracks tomorrow," Labourdette said. "And we must inform the authorities. That is why the strike will only take place in December."
