Delhaize strikers are looking for a new lease of life

The proceedings at Delhaize entered its fifth week. The strikers remain opposed to management’s advanced plans to sell the last 128 stores under its management to independent operators. They fear that they will have to work there under worse conditions. But after a month, the movement is losing more and more momentum. In the first days after the start – on March 7 – workers in 114 of the 128 affected shops went on strike. A week later, thirty stores were opened again, and after a week, customers could visit nearly half of Delhaize’s own stores. On Wednesday, strikes continued in “only” 42 stores. All distribution centers were also open during the day as normal, until a strike broke out late Wednesday night at the Delhaize distribution center in Zellik.

The center of gravity of the event is in French-speaking Belgium. If all 65 stores in Flanders open on Wednesday, there will be 19 of the 41 in Wallonia and only 2 of the 22 in Brussels.

bailiffs on the move

This in itself is in line with the unions announcing a slowdown over the Easter break. Although the trend of decreasing willingness to strike has already begun. At Delhaize, they don’t want to risk too much data on this topic. “There is a social mediator at the end of March (Matthias Jaxens, editor) eye,’ says spokesman Roel Dekelver. He is now speaking to all parties separately. On April 18, everyone will sit around the table together for the first time. Until then, the broker should be able to do his job with full discretion.

Deculver says he is “obviously satisfied” as more and more branches are opening again. We see a positive development. It shows that there are still a lot of people willing to work. We also call on the remaining employees to resume work. We want to continue the dialogue on this topic.

Although Delhaize has also been sending bailiffs since last week, who is to say where those wishing to work are denied access by colleagues on strike. “We only send them to branches that have a lot of people willing to work,” explains Declaver. The deployment of bailiffs may be one reason why so many shops have reopened in recent days. Although we mainly believe that many of the employees themselves realized after weeks of strikes that their activity could not go on forever.

tooth and nail

The STU reacts angrily to questions about the waning willingness to take action. Jan De Weghe, secretary of the BBTK Socialist Union, asks Setca, “What kind of nonsense now?” This is indeed one of the longest procedures ever. After weeks of strikes, the deal was only set to last on Saturdays, but Wallonia and Brussels want to continue to do more than that. The fact that more and more branches are now opening again does not mean that we give in to management’s plans. on the contrary. As a labor union, we will continue to do everything we can to stand up for employee rights tooth and nail. It will become clear in the following days how we will do this.