LARGE parts of Belgium came to a standstill today as workers staged the sixth general strike this year.

Around 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital Brussels in support of the strike called by three trade unions, the ACV, ABVV and the ACLVB, in protest at austerity measures being imposed by Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s government.

Transport was brought to a standstill, schools were closed and public services halted across the country.

More than half of all flights into Brussels airport were cancelled when security staff and baggage handlers walked out.

The government measures slash pension schemes for some workers by up to 20 per cent, reduce workers’ rights and attack collective bargaining.

Frank Beckx, managing director of employers’ organisation Voka, said he believed “Belgium needs more reforms, not stagnation.”

But ACLVB chairman Gert Truyens said the government was showing a “total disregard” for social dialogue by “unilaterally imposing things without discussing them with the trade unions and employers.”

Criticising the pension cuts, ACV chairwoman Ann Vermorgen said: “People will have less money left over and will still have to work more flexibly and longer. Even the Planning Bureau says that the reform will promote inequality and that poverty will emerge.”