The unions for Belgian prison staff have activated their strike notice after Thursday’s meeting with Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt. The strike in Belgian prisons starts on Monday April 1 at 10 p.m. for an indefinite period. This is what federal secretary Eddy De Smedt of the liberal trade union VSOA, Alain Blancke, national delegate of the Christian ACV, and Robby De Kaey, federal secretary of the socialist ACOD, say.
An unprecedented situation on Thursday morning in several Belgian prisons. After a detainee was terribly tortured for days in Antwerp’s Begijnenstraat, an important meeting was planned at 8:30 am between the prison unions and Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt (Open VLD). The cabinet of Minister Van Tigchelt has now announced that the consultation had been on the agenda for some time. There, among other things, overpopulation would be on the table, as well as the aggression problem and minimal services.
READ ALSO. RECONSTRUCTION. How torture started after a fight in the cell over some tobacco: guards suggested Roy Janssen to change cells, but he refused
“The minister wants to be able to requisition guards on the first day of a strike, which means that an x number of people still have to go to work,” says Kristof Muyters of the ACOD trade union. “But that is an attack on the right to strike. We are actually being silenced. Striking is all we have left to make a change. That is why we informed the prison guards on Wednesday evening that they had to sit in the prison refectory until the meeting was over.”
No agreement, strike on April 1
In various Flemish and Brussels prisons, the guards therefore did not go to work on Thursday morning, pending the outcome of the consultation. But around 11.45 am it all came to a head. “We resigned because the minister continues to stick to his plan to requisition people during strikes,” says Muyters. “Moreover, he continues to pass the buck to the prison guards for the torture in Antwerp. He is clearly more concerned about the actions than about the overpopulation itself.
“The minister has blown up the bridges,” says federal secretary Eddy De Smedt of the liberal trade union VSOA after the meeting.
The unions activated their strike notice. The strike will start on Monday April 1 at 10 p.m. for an indefinite period. The fact that the minister decided that staff can be requisitioned from the first day of the strike is “muzzling the staff”, criticized Robby De Kaey of ACOD.
READ ALSO. Three times someone reported torture practices in Antwerp prison, but even the management did not intervene
Without food or drink
In Hasselt prison, a number of guards did not go to work on Thursday morning and remained in a classroom. Prison director Paul Dauwe has always shown understanding for the poor working conditions of the guards, but he is very dissatisfied with Thursday morning’s action. “It is low to the ground and shows a lack of professional pride. Normally we are warned two days in advance if there is a promotion. Then it is difficult to find a solution.”
“But now we were only informed at the last minute. As a result, the detainees are left without food and drink. A handful of employees are still trying to do the most urgent work here. It concerns a number of guards who do have professional pride, supplemented by the administrative and nursing staff and members of the management. They try, among other things, to ensure that detainees receive their urgent medication, that they get to court or that they are taken to hospital.”
Due to the action, transport to and from the court on Thursday morning was certainly difficult. A detainee who received his sentence in the Hasselt court did not get there on time.
READ ALSO. Lawyers reveal further details about torture in Antwerp prison: “It is superlative barbarism”
Tags: Trade unions activate strike notice prisons consultation Van Tigchelt Minister blown bridges
