The judge ruled in summary proceedings after a group of inland skippers and inland shipping organizations went to court. Hundreds of ships are stuck in front of the locks due to a strike by the lock keepers.
Those skippers say they are experiencing economic damage due to the strike, some cannot leave their ship due to the strike and children do not go to school. Their drinking water supply is also starting to dwindle. But companies have also been affected, such as Depre Storage & Handling in Bruges. They should have unloaded 10,000 tons of animal feed there this week. It was only a fraction.