In nineteen Delhaize supermarkets, bailiffs ended the blockades that had lasted for weeks on Saturday. It remains to be seen whether the strikes have been broken for good. ‘In each branch, the staff voted.’
“The Easter weekend is traditionally in our top three in terms of turnover,” says Delhaize spokeswoman Ine Tassignon. “It’s a Saturday when people want to buy in large numbers. Deploying bailiffs is the very last resort we wanted to resort to, we would much rather sit around the table. But in those branches where we sent a bailiff, most of the staff wanted to get back to work. We do everything we can to make that possible for those people.”
The bailiffs delivered court decisions on a unilateral application, after only one party had been heard. “In most cases, the shops reopened after the intervention of a bailiff,” says Tassignon. “In some cases this was not possible due to a lack of available employees or for procedural reasons. Or because it was not possible to get fresh food on the shelves in time.”
Penalties
Federal Secretary Jan de Weghe of BBTK sees the action as a new form of intimidation. “The bailiff draws up a writ of determination of how access to a store is prevented,” he says. “There are also the names of the militants present, who are told that they are subject to a penalty of a thousand euros per day per person. It’s all about the shock effect. We do not assume that Delhaize will actually claim those sums one day.”
According to Jeroen Vandamme, team coach ACV Puls West-Vlaanderen, the chosen procedure undermines the right to strike: “Everyone feels that this is not okay. No consideration is given as to why action is being taken, what the stakes are and what interests are involved. The only argument that counts is that Delhaize would suffer economic damage from these actions. If trade union action is prohibited because of the consequences for the activity of a company, it amounts to completely silencing employees.”
Employees who show up are entitled to a wage, even if there is little work to be done in a store that has been closed for weeks and is no longer stocked. “Delhaize’s three Bruges branches opened with a limited number of people and unstocked shelves,” says Vandamme. “So there is again some activity, but limited.”
In Brussels and Wallonia, 17 and 25 supermarkets operated by Delhaize in-house will remain closed, in Flanders there are now at least 6. Whether the deployment of bailiffs on Saturday will change much in the weeks-long stalemate between unions and management remains to be seen on Tuesday morning.
“In each of those stores, the staff themselves organized a vote on Saturday about continuing the strike or not,” says Jan de Weghe (BBTK). “Where that hasn’t happened yet, people will vote on Tuesday. On Wednesday we will travel with a large delegation of Delhaize employees to Zaandam, where the shareholders’ meeting of main shareholder Ahold will take place that day.”
‘Mrs Schoonjans’
A month ago, Delhaize announced that it wants to make each of its own 128 supermarkets independent. The measure affects 9,000 employees.
After weeks of blockages, temporary habits are gradually becoming permanent for many customers. In a smaller AD Delhaize in an Antwerp provincial town, with three striking supermarkets in the immediate vicinity, it has been significantly busier for weeks. And especially on Easter Monday. “I actually like it better,” says a woman who has been detouring a few kilometers for several weeks because she is attached to certain brands. “In a classic Delhaize you hear ‘Mrs Schoonjans, dry food’ all the time. through the loudspeakers,” she says. “Here, people address each other by their first names. They are mainly working students. They are the same products, but the atmosphere is different.”
The manager in the AD Delhaize practically begs to leave the location of his business unmentioned: “At the start of the strike, we already had people at the cash register who demanded that we show solidarity. We were told it’s a shame that we stay open and that we should strike more. We also received angry messages on our Facebook page. But this store has always been run by an independent. We have always worked here with flexis and student workers. And yes, here you are one moment a rack filler and the next you are at the cash register, depending on how busy it is. And if it is really busy, the manager also jumps in.”
“This kind of flexibility is indispensable in this industry. We have been open every public holiday in the morning for years, except Christmas and New Year’s Day. Every student you see here wants to get ahead in life and is happy to earn some extra money here on a Sunday morning.”
According to the manager, it is the great fear of many AD Delhaizes that they will become the target of the strikers in the next phase. “Why are they on strike? I don’t know, I don’t see the logic in it. A decision has been made at the company level and you would have to be very naive to think that it can ever be reversed.”
