Ban on night flights highlights conflict between employment and environment

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On 30 December 1999, Belgium's Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport adopted a Royal Decree preventing night flights from Brussels-National airport between 01.00 and 05.00, in order to prevent noise pollution. The move caused controversy, with the DHL courier company threatening to relocate to Belgium. The parties in the coalition government were divided, as were the trade unions, with the general secretary of the FGTB/ABVV confederation taking a contrary view to union representatives at DHL. The Decree was subsequently withdrawn for a rethink. The controversy highlighted a growing conflict between environmental and employment priorities.

On 30 December 1999, Isabelle Durant, the Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport (and a member of the ECOLO environmentalist party), adopted a Royal Decree regulating night-time air traffic at federal airports - ie Brussels-National airport, located in the territory of the Flemish commune of Zaventem. Under this decree, night flights taking off from and landing at Zaventem were prohibited between 01.00 and 05.00, in order to prevent noise pollution. The adoption of this decree followed a long series of attempts at conciliation between the interests of residents living near the airport, private courier service companies, airlines, the local authorities and the management of Brussels-National airport. A Royal Decree is a law based on an initiative by the federal government, which requires the signature of the head of state (the king).

Local residents were pleased with the decision, but not so the other parties in the conflict. The first to react was DHL, the giant worldwide courier service company, which not only expressed its anger but also threatened to relocate to an airport near Strasbourg in France. This would entail the loss of at least 6,000 jobs in Belgium. For their part, the trade union organisations had difficulties reaching a common position. The Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) took several days to adopt a generally hostile position towards the Minister for Transport's initiative. The Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV), strongly represented within DHL, was unable to resolve deep-seated internal dissent. Whereas the general secretary of this socialist trade union, Michel Nollet, professed explicit support for the measure promoted by Ms Durant as a reasonable compromise between employment and the environment, DHL's FGTB/ABVV trade union delegation joined the company management in denouncing the ban on night flights.

Within the federal coalition government itself, the Minister's decision sparked a major crisis. Whereas the socialist parties (PS and SP) kept a fairly low profile, there was violent confrontation between the liberals - the Parti Réformateur Liberal (PRL) and Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's own party, Vlaamse en Liberale Demokraten (VLD) – and the green parties (ECOLO and AGALEV). For its part, ECOLO's leadership appealed to the trade unions for support, in the name of the fight against the precariousness and the "flexibility" of jobs that they claimed characterise DHL's style of human resources management.

The night flights crisis has highlighted the dissensions within the world of labour, as regards both the trade unions and the political parties that defends its interests. Faced with the choice between employment and the environment, trade unions (at least at the rank-and-file level) have opted for the former. The socialist parties appear to have come out on the same side. In Flanders, the SP, which faces increasing loss of support among workers, is playing for all or nothing in the province of Flemish Brabant (Zaventem), where the upcoming local elections represent a crucial contest. In the Walloon region, the PS is involved in economic development projects managed by the "intercommunales" (local government bodies representing several adjacent communes). This is particularly so in the Liège area, where the local socialist authorities consider the regional airport of Bierset the linchpin of economic redevelopment in an industrial region hard-hit by economic decline.

At the end of a week of crisis and having been publicly disowned by Daniel Ducarme, president of PRL, Ms Durant was forced to withdraw her bill and transfer the dossier to Prime Minister, who pledged to organise a political dialogue and adopt a new, "all-encompassing" Decree by the end of January 2000.