BRUSSELS--Belgium's first general strike in almost two decades brought parts of the country to a halt on Monday in an anti-austerity protest aimed at the new government and at EU leaders meeting in Brussels.
The rail network closed, buses and trams sat in depots, schools and shops shut and production stopped at the factories of many companies including carmakers Audi and Volvo, Coca Cola and imaging group Agfa-Gevaert.
Charleroi Airport, a hub for Ryanair and other low-cost carriers, was forced to cancel all flights due to union plans to block the access road. However, at Brussels airport most flights were running.
"Some airlines cancelled services ahead of time but overall I think only about 10 percent of flights will be hit," an airport spokesman said.
High-speed international trains, such as the Eurostar from London and Thalys from Paris, were not running into or out of the country as of late on Sunday. At Europe's second busiest port, Antwerp, all container and some bulk cargo terminals were shut, with shipping traffic suffering delays due to suspended harbour services.
Congestion on the highways was less than usual, traffic body Touring-Mobilis said, suggesting that people who had decided to work had left earlier, shared cars or chosen to work from home.
The walkout coincides with the 17th EU summit in two years as the bloc battles to resolve its sovereign debt problems. Belgian union chiefs, gathered outside the meeting, urged the EU to issue joint eurobonds to ease the interest pain for weaker nations and said the rich should shoulder more of the austerity burden.
"Europe must hand out eurobonds, it must help the strikers who have bailed out banks and it must take steps for long-term growth," said Rudy De Leeuw, president of the ABVV union group.
Unions have called the general strike, Belgium's first since 1993, over government plans to raise the effective retirement age along with other measures designed to save 11.3 billion euros ($14.8 billion). "We are angry because they want to attack our pensions," said Philippe Dubois, a railway union member outside Brussels' Midi station. "We want to make some noise."
