BELGIAN trade unions opened a month of intermittent strike action yesterday by paralysing the port of Antwerp and slowing train traffic through much of the country.

Dockworkers walked out in the early hours and picketed the entrances to the huge docks container complex.

Docks pilots had commenced industrial action at 5pm on Sunday and navigation also came to a standstill in the ports of Ghent and Zeebrugge.