Almost 60% of staff working for the municipal administration of Verviers and attending the general assembly voted in favour of ending their strike action from Wednesday at 4:00 a.m., reveal sources from the joint union front. At the same time 95% of participants want to pursue their protest by other means.
The majority voted to end the unlimited strike action decided last Thursday after receiving written pledges from Verviers town authorities. Workers would however like to see implementation “and not just promises.” Workers are giving authorities the opportunity to show they are determined to act.
According to unions, workers are expecting “an agenda, a series of deadlines, and clear propositions on recruitment and replacement policies. They hope to see the 13 employees who were made redundant, re-graded if not reinstated, budget permitting,” highlights Oriane Denys (CGSP-Admi).
Staff also request a promise that there will be no more layoffs in coming months, not even individual ones. As for contracts not to be renewed, unions urgently need to know numbers and what criteria influenced the decisions.
Verviers municipal staff voted in favour of an unlimited strike action last Thursday when they heard of 13 compulsory redundancies decided 2 days earlier by local authorities to balance the 2016 budget. The redundancies represented a 234,000-euro saving in the budget.
(Source: Belga)
