De Lijn unions threaten to strike for four days

From Flanders Today: Unions associated with Flemish public transport authority De Lijn have announced an intention to strike from 17 to 20 May. The strike will affect all De Lijn trams and buses across Flanders and in Brussels.

Unions are protesting at a planned restructuring, which will see the loss of nearly 300 jobs. The jobs would effect management and administrative staff and would means a reduction of the workforce by 16%.

The reform would also eliminate the five provincial De Lijn headquarters, with much of the workload being transferred to the headquarters in Mechelen. That would mean workers would have to travel to Mechelen to work.

Talks will continue, but “if nothing changes, the strike goes through,” said a union spokesperson.

In better news for travellers: De Lijn has launched an electronic version of the Line Card, which offers 10 rides for €16. This is a card bought by passengers who only used De Lijn occasionally. As this option is not yet available on De Lijn’s Mobib card, only a paper card was available that had to be validated.

The new electronic version of the card, called m-card10, is a smartphone app for Android and iPhone. It’s cheaper, too: Users pay just €15 in advance for 10 rides.