Spontaneous strike at the baggage handler at Brussels Airport: delays up to two hours | Interior

Aviapartner’s baggage handlers stopped work at 6.30 am this morning. At the moment, the consequences of the spontaneous strike are greatest for holidaymakers who depart with TUI charter flights, it sounds. “There are some minor delays and some planes have left without bags,” said the spokeswoman for Brussels Airport.

At TUI, it concerns one aircraft that took off to Malaga without luggage. “But there are still two flights to that Spanish destination on the agenda today and the luggage left behind will certainly be in Malaga by tonight at the latest,” said spokesman Piet Demeyere. “All other flights left with suitcases. We have a license to handle the luggage ourselves, so our own employees loaded the suitcases on the planes.”

Several passengers let us know that they have been on the plane for more than an hour, but receive little information from the crew. “Another wildcat strike at the start of a school holiday”, they sigh. Brussels Airport confirms that delays are up to two hours. “But that is because staff are being sought to get the luggage on board,” said spokesperson Nathalie Pierard. “It is a pity for the passengers that they have to wait longer, but when they get to their destination, they will have their bags.”

Björn Vanden Eynde of the Christian trade union confirms that a staff meeting about workload at Aviapartner is underway. That was already the case at the beginning of last month. At that time, the disruption to air traffic was limited. In the meantime, Aviapartner’s management and trade unions are said to be sitting around the table.

The management at baggage handler Aviapartner was shocked when they learned that some of the staff at Brussels Airport had started a spontaneous strike. “We are completely stunned: a strike in the calmest period of the year,” said CEO Philip De Coninck. “The argument of the excessive workload that the union invokes is nonsense at the moment. I can’t shake the impression that this has something to do with the start of the holiday.”

“There are no abnormal circumstances today, such as can of course occur in aviation,” says De Coninck. “The planning was perfectly normal, but it is of course the case in our sector that sometimes we have to hurry – we are not on a conveyor belt. By the way, we continued to recruit during the winter.”

In recent weeks, the management has also not received any signals about increased workload. Unions and management have been renegotiating the basic collective labor agreement for some time now. New consultations were scheduled for next Wednesday, and this would include premiums and the composition of the teams. “Around 10 am I will speak to the unions, and I will already explain our proposal to them,” it sounds. “Why couldn’t they just wait until Wednesday?”

There was already a works council last Wednesday, and the workload was not discussed there either. On a trade union delegation scheduled for Monday, the workload was also not on the agenda that was sent to the management yesterday.

For these reasons, De Coninck suggests that this is about the “systematic hostage taking of hundreds of travelers at the start of the holiday, something we only see in Belgium. My foreign colleagues look at that with amazement: there is minimal service there, maybe we should introduce that here as well?”

The other trade union argument concerns driving licenses at Brussels Airport, for which a points system was introduced at the end of last year. With the old system, the company was punished for violations or irresponsible behavior, now the staff member is also held accountable. “We know that there are concerns about this and that some colleagues feel targeted, but is that sufficient reason to strike, without prior consultation?” De Coninck still wonders.

Today, 48,000 passengers are expected at Zaventem. Tomorrow it will be 60,000 travelers. Aviapartner handles the flights of Tui, KLM, TAP, Iberia and British Airways, among others. Brussels Airlines works together with Alyzia, the other baggage handler at Zaventem, and is therefore not affected. The airport advises travelers to check on the site whether their flight is handled by Aviapartner.

LOOK. During an earlier strike at Aviapartner, passengers had to leave their aircraft