A spontaneous strike of Bpost postmen, opposing the company's transformation plan, has shut down or disrupted about 40 distribution offices across Wallonia and Brussels.
This was confirmed by the general manager of CSC-Transcom labour union, Stéphane Daussaint, on Monday.
Workers in Hainaut (Mouscron, La Louvière, Ath, Mons, Boussu, and Charleroi), Walloon Brabant, Liège, and Brussels are blockading several distribution centres. Around fifty workers have also been blockading the Fleurus centre in Hainaut since early this morning.
Denounced last Friday by unions in a press release, the transformation plan had triggered an initial walkout in Mouscron. The spontaneous movement spread this Monday.
Staff are raging about the planned changes to working hours. Specifically, mail carriers who previously started between 6:30 and 8:30. would now have to start between 8:00 and 10:00, finishing their routes around 17:00 or 18:00.
The plan also introduces greater flexibility and increased mobility in the organisation of postal work, all "without any possibility of negotiation," according to Daussaint. This transformation plan should be operational from September. "The staff are really fired up," he added.
A day of negotiations between the unions and Bpost management is scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the transformation plan and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which has not yet been amended.
Daussaint, however, expressed little optimism about this meeting: "Without a radical change in management's attitude, the chances of reaching an agreement are slim, given the social climate of recent weeks," he warned.
