Hundreds of workers from the municipalities’ offices demonstrated in Brussels today

Hundreds of workers from Brussels’s municipalities, the CPAS and public hospitals of the IRIS network went on strike today, according to the police. More than a thousand according to the unions, have gathered Thursday morning since 10am on place Sainte-Catherine in Brussels.

They demand an increase of 10% in the salary levels, as well as a collective reduction of working time. A list of demands will be tabled with Brussels Finance Minister Guy Vanhengel and Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort.

Unions are calling for an automatic raising of people from E to D-level. They also want to have a salary increase, since workers now have to work until age 67.

The reduction of the desired working time must, in their view, be accompanied by the maintenance of wages and more new hires, and a better welfare policy to improve working conditions.

The minister-president of the Brussels government Rudi Vervoort met Thursday a union delegation on the sidelines of the strike.