Protests as DHL abandons expansion in Brussels

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In October 2004, the express courier company DHL abandoned plans to develop its activities at Brussels airport. Potentially, this decision threatens 1,700 jobs by 2008. Trade unions have responded with a strike and a 'protest march for employment'.

On 20 October 20004, after several weeks of fruitless negotiations with the Belgian federal government and the Flemish and Brussels regional governments, the express courier company DHL, a subsidiary of the German-based Deutsche Post, abandoned plans to develop its European 'hub' at Brussels Zaventem airport (Bruxelles National/Brussel Nationaal) (BE0410301F). This decision threatens 1,700 jobs in the period up until 2008. This decision sparked off an immediate protest strike by DHL’s employees. Furthermore, on 29 October, a joint committee of trade unions at the firm responded by assembling several thousand people in Brussels for a 'protest march for employment'. The unions principally demanded employment guarantees for the company’s staff and, more widely, a stable legal framework for activities related to aviation. According to the unions: 'DHL and the Belgian authorities have failed in their negotiations that should have ensured new employment opportunities at Zaventem. This is not just bad news for DHL employees, but also for all the unemployed and employees at the airport and the surrounding area: in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia'.

A first meeting between management and trade unions on the consequences of DHL's decision for its workforce - under the terms of the 'Renault law' on consultations over planned redundancies (BE0311303T and BE0004309F) - was due to take place on 2 November. A representative of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) stated that 'we maintain our point of view: we want to discuss employment and not mass redundancies'.

DHL, which is currently growing in Europe, wanted to instal its future intercontinental 'hub' at Brussels airport. The express courier and logistics company, which employs 3,700 people in Belgium, said that it was ready to invest EUR 250 million and create 1,400 new jobs. However, there was one condition: authorisation to increase the number of night flights from the current 14,000 a year to 22,000 in four years. Johan Vande Lanotte, the Minister for Public Enterprises, stated: 'We were ready to accept this increase in the number of night flights but on the condition that this be compensated by the use of quieter planes.' Many people who live near the airport have expressed concern about night-time noise levels for several years.

The liberal Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, who has made employment one of the priorities for his coalition government (BE0312305F), said that he was disappointed by DHL’s decision not to make supplementary efforts in reducing noise pollution. By contrast, according to DHL’s management it is the absence of a political consensus in support of its expansion plans at Brussels that led to the project’s failure.

The company’s management has stated that 1,400 additional jobs will no longer be created, and that 1,200 to 1,700 people will lose their jobs when the new international 'hub' becomes operational, outside Belgium. The site where the new installation will be located will be chosen very soon - the two remaining options are Leipzig (eastern Germany) and Vatry (north-eastern France).

Three years after the bankruptcy of Sabena, the national airline, the abandoning of DHL’s expansion project is another hard blow for Brussels airport (BE0102340F, BE0108359F and BE0109362N). Accorcding to the socialist vice-Prime Minister, Laurette Onkelinx, puts it, it is also the end of an era when 'anything could be done by anybody' in the name of employment and to the detriment of the quality of life.