The public authorities are spreading in large letters along Walloon motorways: “Let's be clever, take the train!” »»advise banners. Problem: trains, there are very few at the moment, in Belgium, because the traffic of the National Society of Belgian Railways (SNCB) has been disrupted since February and should remain so for a while. In total, the six unions of the National Society predict, in fact, the trifle of … 75 days of work stoppages by the end of the summer, to the great despair of the tens of thousands “shuttles”, those who use the railways daily to go to work.
In an attempt to appease them, the unions claim that the fight they are led to is also theirs, because they essentially protest against the lengthening of the duration of the careers and the pension reform. The Prime Minister's federal government, Bart de Wever, has initiated large reforms which aim to break other taboos, including the unlimited duration of unemployment benefits, the life appointment of civil servants or specific statutes, such as that of railway workers, currently authorized to retire from 55 years.
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Source: Lemonde