Thursday's general strike is in protest against what unions consider to be excessively harsh austerity policies by the Belgian government. The protests are against raising the retirement age, raising university tuition fees and measures affecting Belgium's annual automatic wage increase.
However, employers are not happy and point to the extra pressure they have been under because of the war in Iran.
"In this context, it is incomprehensible to hold demonstrations," says Pieter Timmermans from the business organization FEB, according to Le Soir.
