Five days of Bpost strike action starting Wednesday

Unions representing staff at the Belgian post office, Bpost, have confirmed they will go ahead with five days of nationwide strike action from this Wednesday, after negotiations with management over short-staffing and working conditions came to nothing.

The walkout will involve five 24-hour strikes in different Bpost departments. Sorting office staff will strike on Wednesday, delivery drivers on Thursday, postmen on Friday, branch and call centre staff next Monday (12 November) and parcel processing workers next Tuesday (13 November).

Unions and management met on Monday. Bpost said in a statement: "A number of important concerns were discussed, including workload and the recruitment of more staff."

"Postal workers are exhausted," said Marc De Mulder, head of the SLFP Poste union. "We get the impression that management at Bpost are listening to us. There has been a change of attitude: they are aware that things are serious."

Alain Faveux, a rep for the CSC Transcom Poste union, said: "We went through our grievances together but nothing really concrete came out of the discussions. There was no way we could lift the strike notice." He added: "We remain available for real short-term negotiations and we have not slammed the door."