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Delhaize strikes continue today
At least half of the supermarkets owned and managed by the Delhaize chain were expected to remain closed on Friday, with the threat of further closures on Saturday, as unions protest the company’s restructuring plans.
Earlier in the week at a meeting of the company’s enterprise board, unions were informed that there are not only store closures and redundancies coming, but that staff who remain will have to give up some benefits and face pay cuts.
Thursday saw reactions in some quarters, with lightning strikes meaning some stores had to close. The actions affect only those stores Delhaize itself manages; franchise operations such as AD Delhaize are not affected.
Pickets were mounted early on Thursday morning at distribution depots in Zellik and Ninove, as the night shift downed tools.
“Our people are furious, and they’re more than ready to take action,” a union spokesperson said. The pickets had an immediately visible effect in stores, where deliveries failed to arrive. Elsewhere, in Brussels and Ostend, stores closed altogether.
In June, Delhaize announced plans to close 14 stores permanently. At the same time, 2,500 employees will lose their jobs. Delhaize employs more than 15,000 people in 854 stores across the country, 138 of which it manages itself. The axe will fall mainly on stores that are not competitive in their local areas.
According to the company, Delhaize staff cost more to employ than their counterparts in other supermarket: 16% more than Colruyt, 22% more than Carrefour and 33% more per hour than Albert Heijn. In addition, Delhaize staff have built up some enviable benefits over the years, including length-of-service pay increases over their careers.
Depots in Ninove and Zellik are today due to be joined by Molenbeek, and the ACV union warned that at least half of all Delhaize stores will be closed. The rest will receive no deliveries, so that the total on Saturday is likely to be higher still.
photo: Belga
Comments
Strikes.......I am old enough to remember the UK of 1980, the strike ridden sick man of Europe. As a result I have little time for the trades unions.
I have been held up and had my travel plans ruined by SeaFrance and Sabena. They had little strike parties in fancy dress and laughed at their customers in distress, and in the case of SeaFrance, fought with them in the port.
In both cases, they not only withdrew their own labour, they shut down the entire airport and the port of Calais and ALL operators. In both cases, they were CRAP when it came to customer service, SeaFrance in particular where the "you owe me a living" attitude and "I don't give a damn" was palpable. Nobody with any sense took Seafrance, and the food was CRAP.
When the EU stopped direct and illegal Belgian subsidies for Sabena, the bloody fools STILL did not get it and went on strike AGAIN. Once they realised that their demands were not going to be met this time, and that the company was now actually bust (I think it made a profit ONCE in it's entire history?) and that there was no job to strike for any more, they cried and hugged each other like babies.
I could not have laughed louder, the only exception possibly being when the EU finally worked out that atate owned SNBC were illegally subsidising SeaFrance via the back door and put a stop to that as well. The port is a better place without SeaFrance.
Delhaize have, at least for as long as I was in Belgium, always have had a "you owe us a living" attitude to their customers with just one symptom (among too many to list) being when they closed the doors 15 minutes before closing because closing for them was when they left.
Another heavily unionised company bites the dust, I hope.
I was at delhaize on Anspach boulevard 2 weekends ago. On the website it says they close at 7pm so ran there and was there at 6:28pm. I manage to enter the store. But right behind me a couple was denied entrance by a guy standing at the door because I guess they didn't want any more customers coming in, since as you said, 7pm closing time, means that's when they want to go home. Only in Belgium!