2023-09-23 10:32:06
The Delhaize store located in Flagey, Ixelles, had to close its doors on Saturday due to a solidarity action carried out on site, the Belga agency noted on the scene.
Some 150 people gathered on rue de Hennin, in front of the Delhaize brand, to protest once morest the lion brand’s plans to franchise all of its stores.
Some protesters were in front of the store but others entered the supermarket, hindering the work of employees as well as customers’ purchases by filling shopping carts with products that they took to the checkout and left behind, saying that they might not pay for their purchases. This led to long lines at the checkouts.
The store finally announced that it would have to close its doors around noon for the rest of the day.
Delhaize announced a few months ago that it wanted to sell all of its 128 owned supermarkets, a decision which has since caused persistent social unrest.
“Today, it is a new form of action, unprecedented in Belgium, with mainly people who do not work at Delhaize but who are in solidarity with the chain’s staff,” one of them explains to Belga. Some protestors.
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“The Delhaize de Flagey is a symbol, it was one of the first for which a buyer was found,” explains the CNE union. “A few weeks following the franchise announcement, a union representative was fired. The buyer has already announced that the opening days and hours will change and that from now on the staff will also have to clean the store. Those who disagreed were asked to resign. This is the promise of management that nothing would change for the staff”, illustrates, bitterly, the Christian union.
“After the takeover, the new owner can at any time revoke the management’s promise that we will continue to work under the same conditions,” testifies a protesting employee. “Since the announcement of the takeover, 13 of the 68 employees have left. The new owner has already said he has no plans to replace them. We will therefore have to do the same work, or even more, with fewer people and probably in deteriorated conditions,” he emphasizes.
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