A further meeting on reform of the waste collection system in Brussels is planned for Friday morning with the relevant trade unions. This will take place at the office of the Brussels Secretary of State for Waste Management, Fadila Laanan.
The trade unions issued strike notices at the end of February. Following a meeting last Friday with the management for Brussels Waste agency, the “joint trade union front” left dissatisfied. Their unease stemmed from the measures proposed during the meeting to reform waste collection.
This feeling is, on the whole, shared by the other refuse workers affected who have already been informed this week of the discussions in progress.
Michel Piersoul says, “This feeling is unanimous: the workers have had enough. They want results and are this close to going on strike. Now our role as a trade union is to resolve the problems before they take to the streets.”
He goes on, “I have issued a counter-proposal which does not completely discard everything which has already been agreed and implemented. This proposal does, however, offer restructuring and would allow for the resolution of the majority of the issues at stake.”
When viewing the issue holistically, the trade unions are complaining of an increase in workers' workload. This is as much linked to the increase in the number of collections as restructuring the services and reorganising collection rounds.
The proposals from the last meeting to collect blue sacks on Wednesday afternoon rather than the morning were considered an insufficient measure to rectify the problem.
The Brussels Times
