“White smoke, but consultation is difficult” between management and unions AB InBev | local

A strike broke out last Thursday and Friday at various breweries and brewery warehouses. After two rounds of negotiations over wages and working conditions, discussions that take place every two years, it emerged that “the waters were very deep” between unions and management.

A new meeting is scheduled for Friday. If that does not lead to an agreement, new strikes will follow, unions announced last week. This new blow will not happen in the short term: an agreement was reached on Friday.

The management has responded to one of the unions’ demands: a maximum purchasing power bonus of 750 euros is given to employees. A number of other one-time installments were also granted. However, ABVV is not “entirely happy,” says secretary Peter van der Elst. “There is white smoke, but it is not healthy. We have reached an impasse on recurring installments, which is an important point for us. We left the table with mixed feelings.”

The unions also wanted guarantees of practical work and quality of work. No agreement has been reached on this matter, but it will be discussed later.

More generally, the ABVV secretary stated that “it remains difficult to reach agreements with management. “It is difficult to find each other and they both leave the table feeling good,” says van der Elst. “We often hit a wall: this is a cause for concern.”

This is also what ACV Secretary Sander Mouton says. “There is very little flexibility on the part of the administration. We have the impression that the instructions from the top were very clear and there was no deviation from them. It is an agreement, but it was very difficult. There was nothing more.”

Van der Elst does not rule out more strikes in the future.

Watch also. “We will not feel this blow immediately.”