Brussels Airport customs officers on strike (since Wednesday 17 October)

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Passenger
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Brussels Airport customs officers on strike (since Wednesday 17 October)

Post by Passenger »

Wednesday: disruption by the Customs trade unions at Brussels Airport. Arriving passengers will have to add one hour waiting time, and some departing flights will also be delayed.

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sn26567
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Re: Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2018

Post by sn26567 »

Passenger wrote: 16 Oct 2018, 19:31 Wednesday: disruption by the Customs trade unions at Brussels Airport. Arriving passengers will have to add one hour waiting time, and some departing flights will also be delayed.
That's the only time you can see them working at all. Usually, when you arrive at BRU, you can see 4 or 5 customs officers having a nice chat between them, but they don't give a damn about passengers.

Lack of staff? They must be joking...
André
ex Sabena #26567

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Yuqu12
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Re: Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2018

Post by Yuqu12 »

I'm wondering how much money and sigarettes that enter Belgium if they have to stop their action after 2 hours because they cannot follow all the breaches when entering the country...

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Conti764
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Re: Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2018

Post by Conti764 »

sn26567 wrote: 18 Oct 2018, 15:58
Passenger wrote: 16 Oct 2018, 19:31 Wednesday: disruption by the Customs trade unions at Brussels Airport. Arriving passengers will have to add one hour waiting time, and some departing flights will also be delayed.
That's the only time you can see them working at all. Usually, when you arrive at BRU, you can see 4 or 5 customs officers having a nice chat between them, but they don't give a damn about passengers.

Lack of staff? They must be joking...
They are supposed to single out individual passengers to undergo checks. In the morning (African flights) they have their hands full.

Something that can be improved in the future imho... Rearrange the arrivals hall to have an area where custom checks can be executed on a broader and more efficient base. Compare the cheap looking, chaotic scenes at BRU with f.e. Australian customs...

Stij
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Re: Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2018

Post by Stij »

sn26567 wrote: 18 Oct 2018, 15:58
That's the only time you can see them working at all. Usually, when you arrive at BRU, you can see 4 or 5 customs officers having a nice chat between them, but they don't give a damn about passengers.

Lack of staff? They must be joking...
I agree, either they chat, either they're not there... it's a joke...

Cheers,

Stij

b720
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Re: Brussels Airport customs officers on strike (since Wednesday 17 October)

Post by b720 »

And Sometimes past 22:00 there is No one!

Stij
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Re: Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2018

Post by Stij »

Conti764 wrote: 19 Oct 2018, 12:45 ...In the morning (African flights) they have their hands full...
I arrived back from Uganda on sundaymorning during the African rush... nobody at customs...

Again, a joke... they should be ashamed...

Stij

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Conti764
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Re: Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2018

Post by Conti764 »

Stij wrote: 19 Oct 2018, 15:30
Conti764 wrote: 19 Oct 2018, 12:45 ...In the morning (African flights) they have their hands full...
I arrived back from Uganda on sundaymorning during the African rush... nobody at customs...

Again, a joke... they should be ashamed...

Stij
Hence the 'they are supposed to...' ;)

It's not the hardest working faction on the airport, through…

Passenger
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Re: Brussels Airport customs officers on strike (since Wednesday 17 October)

Post by Passenger »

They don't bully the passengers (and airlines) because they are understaffed. They bully the passengers (and airlines) because any "social action" at Brussels Airport gets tv coverage.

They don't demand "more staff". They reason for their "social action" is because the government wants to change the sickness-days advantages for public servants.

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Conti764
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Re: Brussels Airport customs officers on strike (since Wednesday 17 October)

Post by Conti764 »

Passenger wrote: 19 Oct 2018, 15:59 They don't bully the passengers (and airlines) because they are understaffed. They bully the passengers (and airlines) because any "social action" at Brussels Airport gets tv coverage.

They don't demand "more staff". They reason for their "social action" is because the government wants to change the sickness-days advantages for public servants.
To a certain extend I agree with you.

I for one prefer actions which do not disturb people outside the discussion (general population). Problem is the unions can only go so far in what actions they anounce. For instance, they can't call on their members to do an action like the police did the past days (call in sick for the Eurotop in Brussels), these kind of actions do not disturb the general population but only put a burden on the organization of the Eurotop and the minister responsible. But it cannot be sanctioned by the unions because in essence it's a breach of duty and even illegal.


The latest action that disturbed the airport was an action sanctioned by the unions. The officers performed their duties in detail (prikactie). Such actions can be and are sanctioned by the unions.

Blame the government and the responsible ministers for it. I don't know how customs work, but police officers can be easily summoned to work as has happend the past few days. So no option to strike, which imo would be logical for intervention services, but the government abuses these mechanism to undercut the right to go on strike for officers. Thus you either get spontaneous actions which in general do not disturb the population, or you get union sanctioned actions but due to the nature of their work, results in the population (passengers) being disturbed.

Stij
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Re: Brussels Airport customs officers on strike (since Wednesday 17 October)

Post by Stij »

http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20181023_03865431 In Dutch
The strike is over! They'll get extra staff by next month.

Personal note: I really still wonder what they actually do... maybe at Brucargo a lot...
But at the terminal I seldom see them picking out a passenger... either they chat, either they're just not there…

Cheers,

Stij

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