Swissport wildcat strike at Brussels Airport - 22/08/2017

[sn26567]

Today, 9 days after the strike, some pieces of baggage still haven't been reconciled with their owner. Here is the reaction of a disgusted passenger posted in the comments of our main page news:

I am just one of hundreds of passengers who, after nine days are still without luggage. Little or no updates or communication received from Brussels airlines or Swissport.

This is a scandal and affects thousands of innocent people caught up in what is a repetitive action by Swissport. There are photos & videos online showing thousands of bags dumped in storage areas all over the airport. It's reported the stench of rotting food and damp clothes is horrendous.

[sean1982]

It's reported the stench of rotting food and damp clothes is horrendous.

This is true. I came back from London 2 days ago and the smell in the arrivals hall nearly made me vomit, more akin of a garbage dump than an airport. Disgusting and what a "welcome to belgium" after the ridiculous long queue with the closed passport control gates! Bru at its finest

[Boavida]

Arriving at BRU nowadays looks like arriving in a third world country: still hundreds of bags all over the place and the smell is indeed disgusting!

I really don't understand why BAC (the airport) or swissport don't seem to have a plan about how to deal with stikes. After every strike they're improvising. It happens every bl**dy year a few times, so why are they not better prepared for it? Why don't they have a roadmap?

ALL bags should have gone to the CARGO area from day 1, instead of putting them on belts to the reclaim area! Clearly the reclaim area is not fitted for thousands of bags after a strike!

The amateurism of this airport is sometimes hard to bear.

[Boavida]

Smelling bags reach the news (VRT NWS): https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2017/09/05 ... -zaventem/

[convair]

Smelling bags reach the news (VRT NWS): https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2017/09/05 ... -zaventem/

Well, as long as the smell doesn't reach the hypermarket sanctuary upstairs...

[Stij]

I was there sunday evenibg and didn t smell anything special...

Stij

[Tmedge]

I was affected by a Swissport strike on 22 August 2017 .

I was travelling through Brussels airport 22 August on SN2184 from Manchester with a scheduled flight onward to Sharm El Sheikh for two week holiday.

My bags were not delivered from the plane to the carousel for me to collect from my SN 2184 flight so we had little alternative but to travel to Sharm without our bags.

Having never experienced this type of event before I dutifully followed all the advice (lies ? ) given to me by Brussels airline staff.
Text messages were sent to me, emails were sent to me, all confirming my bags would be sent to me at my hotel in Sharm .

Brussels airlines broke every written promise they made to me !

No bags were ever delivered to my hotel, only after I sent repetitive emails every day did I have an email that said one of my bags had been delivered to the airport in Sharm ! I had to go get it myself ! Unfortunately Brussels airlines had only sent the bag, but... with no corresponding paperwork !

Egyptian customs would not release the bag to us . We spent a hectic hour showing our documents, our bag tag, even a photo of my wife from another holiday with the bag, before they reluctantly released our bag to us.

Yet when I ask for some financial assistance the airline begin chanting the mantra of "Force Majeure"

My question is this :

These strikes are NOT unforeseen circumstances .

A judge has previously ruled, in a court case in Manchester : Thomas Cook v Ash April 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/ ... dge-rules/

Therefore we have a ruling that suggests some events that happen very often can no longer be claimed as extraordinary events.

I had to travel back to UK via Brussels two weeks after my bags were withheld from me.
I had important paperwork, a large laptop and other items I wanted urgently from my bag so I made the decision not to wait for Brussels airlines any longer and queued for over an hour at lost and found in order to retrieve my bag personally. Unfortunately this meant I missed my connecting flight back to UK so I had more expense as a direct result of this strike action on August 22.

After all of the hassle trying to sort this mess out and knowing I had missed my connecting flight by approx twenty minutes, I went to the Brussels Airlines desk, I was not surprised that the the support I received from the Brussels Airline desk within Brussels airport was non existent.

" we did not make you miss your flight so you have to pay another 600 Euro if you want to fly with us to go home to UK" Was their response.

It is my opinion that this level of "service" should not be allowed.

I now know that Swissport handle a majority share (60%) of all luggage going through Brussels, I now know they strike very, very often and cause misery and mayhem for beleaguered passengers who, seemingly, have no rights in law to fight back ?

I am not so much angry that my bags were "lost or missing" as the airline likes to say, but I am perplexed and very angry that the actions by these companies, the airlines and Swissport can carry on repetitively, year after year with seemingly no intervention by Government or consumer rights to help defend the customers from these abhorrent actions.

[Stij]

Welcome to luchtzak Tmedge!

Thanks for your testimony!

Stij

[Passenger]

These strikes are NOT unforeseen circumstances. A judge has previously ruled, in a court case in Manchester : Thomas Cook v Ash April 2015:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/ ... dge-rules/
Therefore we have a ruling that suggests some events that happen very often can no longer be claimed as extraordinary events.

I'm no lawyer, but I'm quite familiar with legal treatment of travel complaints. And this wasn't just a strike: it was a wildcat strike. Legal expression in Dutch: "een wilde staking". For Belgian courts, a wildcat strike indeed means hand of god - overmacht - force majeure.

Regarding the broken promises about the luggage to be send to Egypt: Belgian airlines and touroperators usually are more willing to settle compensation through a free ticket or a voucher, rather then a pay out in cash. So maybe you can send a request to Brussels Airlines with suggestion for such compensation.

[Tmedge]

Passenger
Thank you for info re: free tickets. It is a good suggestion which I shall follow.

I was denied access to my luggage due to this strike. It severely impacted my travel and holiday plans. I had extra costs and expenditure as a direct result of this "wildcat" strike action. I am also aware that other travellers were more severely impacted, mine was a simple leisure holiday.
Some passengers were denied access to : important business documents or equipment, medical supplies, car seats, food and strollers for infants.

I am not using the forum to seek sympathy or complain to make myself feel better.

Because of what has happened to me I now know, from using excellent forums such as this one, that these strikes "wildcat" or not, are very regular occurrences .

If lumps of masonry fall off tall buildings in high winds it is "Force Majeure". If these lumps of masonry continuously fall off buildings each and every time it is windy is this still "Force Majeure"
I would argue it is not.
The fact that Swissport choose to strike so regularly without bothering to give notice to any one is my main discussion point.
Going on strike suddenly because, for example, your colleague has been killed in an accident at work and management have done nothing about it may be "Force Majeure" .

But to regularly go on strike, as Swissport do, for better pay and conditions is hardly "Force Majeure" .

The facts are that airlines KNOW that these strikes occur very often.

Yet time and time again, with the greatest respect to the previous poster "Passenger", are we all meant to sit back, relax, don't make a fuss and always, dutifully, accept that Swissport (as they do every year) decided to go on strike without kindly indicating to anyone of their intentions.

Rather than simply accept it is "c'est la vie". I sincerely want to look into how we can all try work to prevent this repetitive strike action from continuously causing the anguish, hurt and heartache that follows when passengers are denied access to their luggage, for often weeks at a time, after these strikes.

PRIORITIES

Imagine, for example, the Belgian Fire Service went on strike.
Would no one be available to save lives and property by extinguishing fires? I would sincerely hope that the authorities have a back up plan and, as perhaps in the UK, would use the army to assist.

Now can someone please explain to me why we all blindly accept that every year tens of thousands of passengers will be cruelly disrupted by these regular (but unannounced) strikes.

Yet nothing is ever done by Government or Department of Transport to immediately flood the airport terminal with hundreds of staff from other airports or industries to take safe and proper control of the situation.

I am not unsympathetic to any working person who has to strike to seek attention to his/her plight.

However I am confident that if the army (as an example) was called in every time Swissport went on strike and very quickly took control of the situation that results in tens of thousands of abandoned bags, the repetitive nature of the strikes would be lower simply because the strike action would not cause the disastrous affect that Swissport can guarantee each time they make a decision to literally stop work without bothering to tell anyone.

[Yuqu12]

Welcome in Belgium, the land where the Ministery of Transport doesn't do a single bit (we are waiting 4 years for a national aviation law). But beside that, the government can't do that much against these strikes or send other staff, as the civil airports are privatized here and thus they don't have to react. Brussels Airlines let their staff unload the planes so they could leave on time.

[luchtzak]

Smelling bags reach the news (VRT NWS): https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2017/09/05 ... -zaventem/

Well, as long as the smell doesn't reach the hypermarket sanctuary upstairs...

The luggages are still there, pictures taken this morning. Smelly!

https://www.aviation24.be/airports/brussel ... vals-hall/

[Tmedge]

I am a UK citizen and I know we have a "freedom of information" law which allows ordinary people like me to make an enquiry on matters such as the Swissport strike.

Is there such a way to find out just how many times Swissport have been on strike in Brussels over the last few years?

[luchtzak]

I am a UK citizen and I know we have a "freedom of information" law which allows ordinary people like me to make an enquiry on matters such as the Swissport strike.

Is there such a way to find out just how many times Swissport have been on strike in Brussels over the last few years?

Google search might help:

https://www.aviation24.be/search/?cx=00541 ... 1351556j33

[Passenger]

I am a UK citizen and I know we have a "freedom of information" law which allows ordinary people like me to make an enquiry on matters such as the Swissport strike. Is there such a way to find out just how many times Swissport have been on strike in Brussels over the last few years?

Both handlers at Brussels Airport, Swissport and Aviapartner, are 100% private companies. Therefore, there is no legal obligation for them to give you (or somebody else) the number of internal strikes. Only possibility is to get the number of times that the Belgian Department of Social Affairs had to intervene to solve a conflict - but that number will be a contra argument for you (because it's just 1 or 2).

Best sources to count the number of strikes: use the above search engine (see post from Luchtzak), or check the topic you are now reading and those two topics:
Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2015
Strikes affecting Belgian airports in 2016


And may repeat myself: this was a wildcat strike, which means the strike was legally not just an "extrordinary circumstance", but a "hand of god", thus waiving all responsabilities the client-airlines had, apart from the assistance that is set out in EU Rule 261/2004.

[Tmedge]

I was posting before regarding my missing bags.

I had an email response from Geert Sciot VP of communications Brussels airlines who basically said there is nothing the Brussels airlines can do as Swissport are the legal carriers of luggage not the airlines.

I think it is very convenient that this system is in place for the airlines as it allows them to totally absolve themselves of any responsibility when Swissport have these regular strikes.

I also noted, and it was confirmed by Geert, that they had every single person from office workers to office cleaners tasked with removing bags from their planes during the strike.

Therefore non of their 60 million dollar aircraft were delayed too much regardless of the wildcat strike.

However when it comes to the poor unfortunate travellers and their 17000 items of luggage, well that can seemingly wait until Swissport find the time to process the bags and send them on.

After two weeks on vacation without my bag, after hundreds of unanswered emails or updates from Swissport or Brussels airlines, I made a reluctant decision not to get my connecting flight back to UK after I landed back in Brussels on my return trip home on Tuesday 5th September. I reluctantly queued up at the Swissport desk, with at least 40 other passengers and after a couple of hours I finally retrieved my bag. I watched the clock tick by and knew I had missed my connecting flight but with important items such as camera and laptop, sentimental items, some jewellery and also some important work documents I was going to work on whilst away I really did not want to rely or trust these people to deliver my bag to me. I really expected my bag to be opened and contents missing so I wanted to see this in their possession and take my own evidence photos. After all they had assured me that my bags would be delivered direct to me at my hotel but instead they delivered one of my bags to Sharm airport but did not inform me !
Only after one of my daily emails to all their offices did someone respond "your bag is in Sharm Airport" .

I took photos and video of at least three rooms still full of "missing bags". Most of the bags I saw still had luggage tags attached . Many bags were damaged and open with contents strewn out, I witnessed pools of liquids leaking out of many bags and therefore damaging bags next to them. I saw flies buzzing all around and the stench was very strong. I also witnessed many passengers ignoring the long queue and walking straight into the rooms, unchecked, to search for their own bags. I saw many of these same passengers walking away from the rooms with bags that had not been officially released.

I was able to understand more why the process was so chaotic and taking so long as there were only two operatives at Swissport missing luggage desk. Each time a passenger approached the desk the operative would check the file on the computer, then leave his desk to take the passenger into the stores to search together for the bags. So one passenger could easily take twenty minutes of the operatives time in retrieving one bag ! All the time the desk was vacant and the queues got longer.

I was taken directly to my "found" bag (mercifully still intact and not robbed as some others have reported) still with the tag attached so it really does seem that unless you cancel all your plans and go get the bag yourself it could take months before they find available staff to process the bags remaining.

I knew there was not much hope but I went to the Brussels airlines desk in the main section of the airport and asked for some assistance to help get me home after I missed the connecting flight whilst getting my bag that they had lost.

"We did not make you miss your connecting flight" was their response.
"We did not lose your bag " was stated to me . "Swissport lost your, bag discuss it with them"

"We can get you on a plane tomorrow for standard price, no discounts for 300 euro" was their reply.

I still maintain that contractually I did not employ Swissport to handle my bag. I had paid Brussels airlines to transport me & my bag to Brussels from Manchester.

It seems that legally they can then contract Swissport to handle my luggage and then absolve themselves of any legal or financial responsibility if their contractor fails in their duty.

[sn26567]

I still maintain that contractually I did not employ Swissport to handle my bag. I had paid Brussels airlines to transport me & my bag to Brussels from Manchester.

It seems that legally they can then contract Swissport to handle my luggage and then absolve themselves of any legal or financial responsibility if their contractor fails in their duty.

I agree with you on that one.

I still recall a flight from Brussels to Rome with Virgin Express in 1998. A camera was stolen in my checked baggage at Rome Fiumicino airport. Virgin didn't want to reimburse me, saying that I should ask the airport. I disagreed and said I had contracted Virgin Express, not Rome Fiumicino, to transport my baggage. Eventually, I went to court and I won: the judge did agree with my point of view.

(Incidentally, I moved a number of posts relating to the Swissport strike from the generic "Strikes in 2007" topic to this one)