Trade union recruits illegal immigrants in campaign to regularise status
Published: 27 April 1999
In March 1999, one of the largest Belgian trade unions, SETCa/BBTK, recruited around 40 illegal immigrants in a campaign to support the regularisation of their legal status. This initiative is the latest expression of a growing concern among Belgian unions for the position of illegal immigrants.
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In March 1999, one of the largest Belgian trade unions, SETCa/BBTK, recruited around 40 illegal immigrants in a campaign to support the regularisation of their legal status. This initiative is the latest expression of a growing concern among Belgian unions for the position of illegal immigrants.
At the end of March 1999, some 40 immigrants and refugees, who are either living illegally in Belgium or are in the process of regularising their legal status, applied to join the Union of Employees, Technicians and Managers (Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres/Bond der Bedienden, Technici en Kaderleden, SETCa/BBTK) in Brussels. The applicants - known in Belgium as sans papiers, or those without papers - are backed by associations assisting illegal immigrants and by teachers and students from the Free University of Brussels.
Albert Faust, SETCa's president, told the "Le Matin" daily newspaper: "The unions have a tradition of welcoming every one, Belgian or foreign ... What is at stake, apart from the symbolism of this action, is to offer union protection to those illegal immigrants working in the informal economy to make up for their lack of social security. Usually, hunting down the employer/slave-trader means punishing the illegal worker. However, we want to prevent them from becoming victims. It is bad enough that they are without papers".
In January, a workers' delegation from the Volkswagen plant at Forest (Brussels) met illegal immigrants who were occupying a Brussels church to show their solidarity with the "weakest and those with least rights".
On 23 March, the national leadership (federal bureau) of the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV) - to which SETCa/BBTK is affiliated - decided to support the regularisation of all illegal immigrants who have lived in Belgium for five years or more.
Meanwhile, around 100 Christian trade union activists from the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) have demanded the regularisation of the status of Kosovar refugees living in Belgium since July 1998.
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