BRUSSELS – Hospital workers were out in force on Thursday to demand higher pay and better working conditions, Belgian press reports said.

There have been strikes by hospitals and rest homes across the country in support of the move.

In French speaking Wallonia alone, employees at around 25 rest homes stopped work.

Brussels’ Edith Cavell hospital is on strike for the first time while the Erasme and St. Luc hospitals in Brussels are watching developments with interest, a union official told Le Soir’s online edition.

A delegation of 25 ‘militant’ protesters from the non-merchant sector of the Flemish LBC union – showed up early Thursday morning at the home of Yves Leterme, the minister-president for the Flemish region to voice their concerns.

Among other things, they argued that their sector has not received salary increases in about eight years.

Leterme responded that although society was indebted to the sector, there were insufficient means to meet the salary increase demands.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news