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Two labour federations on Friday called on their members to participate in Belgium’s first “women’s strike” and other actions planned for International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March.
The socialist Fédération Générale du travail de Belgique (FGTB) and the Christian Confédération des syndicats chrétiens (CSC) called on their affiliates to join actions such as the World Women’s March, which starts next Friday at 5 p.m. at the Central Train Station in Brussels, and the women’s strike organised by the Collectif 8 Mars on the same day.
Men earn on average 21% more than women in Belgium, while the pension gap is 28%, in favour of men, the two federations said in a joint press release, nothing that according to their calculations, women do unpaid work from 3.05 p.m. each day.
“It’s unjustifiable that, in 2019 in Belgium, female workers, because they were born women, have labour conditions, salaries and pensions that are lower than men’s,” they stressed.
The Christian trade union, Centre nationale des employés (CNE), had already given notice at the end of January for the 8 March “women’s strike”. The liberal Centrale Générale des Syndicats Libéraux de Belgique (CGSLB) had said at the time that it did not support the call for such a strike.
Christopher Vincent
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