Strikes continue closures at Lidl

Strikes continue today at budget supermarket chain Lidl. Some one hundred stores – roughly a third of all Belgian Lidls – remain closed after talks between the unions and management failed last week.

This is the sixth day in which Lidl workers have been striking against mounting work pressure and understaffed stores, with strike actions having peaked on Friday with 147 store closures – 18 of which were in Brussels and Walloon Brabant.

 Lidl Belgium tweeted on Thursday about its store closures

Ook vandaag zullen een 70 tal Lidl-winkels gesloten blijven. Op https://t.co/68VeeAR6dr. kan je een overzicht vinden of jouw Lidl-winkel gesloten is. pic.twitter.com/arwhyMI5Xg

— Lidl Belgium (@LidlBelgium) April 26, 2018

Negotiations began last week and had reached an agreement that the company would hire one extra worker per store for six months while resolving the issue of workplace pressure. This was agreed by two of the three striking unions but ultimately vetoed when the socialist union voted against this. With no deal reached, the strikes continue and have now moved on to blockade the distribution centres for Lidl.