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The public bus system has been affected, over several weeks, by repeated strikes. The management of the Walloon Regional Transport Company (Société Régionale Wallonne des Transports, SRWT) is not in agreement with the workers’ wage demands. The dispute has been exacerbated by the resignations of several social conciliators appointed by the federal Ministry of Employment. The impasse seems total at present.
The majority of public transport buses in Wallonia (Tec) were once more idle on the 26th May 2005, since the unions and the Walloon Regional Transport Company (Société régionale wallonne des transports, SRWT), the company which is the cornerstone of the Tec, continue to be in disagreement over the wage negotiations, which regularly have been paralysing the Tec bus network since the end of April. 'We have done as much as we could have done. If the Walloon government and the SWRT want peace, they will have to make a gesture. We have already revised our list of claims twice', the representative of the General Confederation of Public Services (Centrale Générale des Services Publics/De Algemene Centrale der Openbare Diensten, CGSP/ACOD), Yves Depas, let this be known to the Agence Belga. In his opinion, the SRWT should be able to respond to the second list of claims from the socialist trade union (which has a common front with the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België, CGSLB/ACLVB), the liberal trade union) without it resulting in redundancies. The position is the same for the Public Services Christian Union (Centrale Chrétienne des Services Publics/Christelijke Centrale van de Openbare Diensten, CCSP/CCOD). Charly Govaert, the representative of the CCSP, explained his standpoint: 'We are waiting for the negotiations to restart'.
On the 19th April, with a view to obtaining an collective agreement for the sector, discussions had started under the auspices of the president of the joint committee. He had put forward a proposal for a wage increase of 6% (including inflation and wage scale increases). Overall, this proposal would come down to a net increase of 1.1%. The unions, with the CGSP in the lead, had refused this proposal and had demanded a net increase of 3%. The management of the SRWT has always rejected this claim. They also reminded the unions that, in terms of employment, the SRWT was guaranteeing to maintain overall employment for the next two years as well as bringing back the early retirement pension system for those over 55. 'The unions of the TEC are abusing their position of power to force through unreasonable claims, but they must not forget that the wage packages and the means to pay them are not infinitely elastic', was the comment of Jean-Marie Vandenbroucke, assistant Managing Director of the SRWT.
Since the end of April, the unions have organised several work stoppages. A first official conciliator tried in vain to lead the negotiations between the management and the TEC unions. On the 19th May, given the lack of results he resigned. Two new conciliators were appointed to attempt to renew the dialogue. On the 25th May, they also resigned following words about them, which they judged to be 'insulting and slanderous', pronounced by the Managing Director of the TEC, Jean-Claude Phlypo. Having heard that a concertation meeting had been cancelled, M.Phlypo had accused one of the two social conciliators, amongst other things, of wanting to create a 'bloodbath' in Wallonia. In principle, a new conciliator was to be appointed on the 26th May by the Federal Minister for Employment, Freya Van den Bossche.
The Minister of Transport for the Walloon Region, André Antoine, very much regretted the successive resignations of the social conciliators. He declared: 'Now, we must get round the table together. I am asking for a real truce form the union side, in order to give dialogue a chance.' On the fundamentals of the dispute, he reiterated the position of the regional Government. He cannot release additional funds to satisfy the strikers’ demands, because of the budgetary constraints of the Region. In his view, the TEC employees have been offered considerable increases, when one considers the morose economic climate. 'If we do any more than this, we will return to the situation of some years ago, when we were making drivers redundant so that we could pay others. I do not want it to come to that', he said.
At present, the Walloon Public Transport Company (TEC) employs 4,795 people. Amongst these are approximately 3,200 drivers. The TEC has 1,634 vehicles at its disposal, to which must be added 552 vehicles which belong to private sub-contractors.
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