Belgium Shatters Strike-Day Record in 2025, Reaching a “ truly exceptional” Level in Historical Terms

Belgium has never seen so many strikes in a single year as it did in 2025. Workers accumulated 1,354,845 strike days, or 313 days for every 1,000 employees. That broke the previous record of 299 days per 1,000 workers, set in 1993.

The number of people taking part also reached a historic high, at 820,917. The union challenge to the Arizona government therefore exceeded the level recorded during the Dehaene I government. Kurt Vandaele, a researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, called the result “a truly exceptional figure in historical terms.”

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A truly exceptional figure in historical terms. Records were broken in almost every category.

Strikes were spread across the entire year, unlike protests against the Dehaene Global Plan, which were more heavily concentrated in the fourth quarter. Education accounted for the largest share of strike days in 2025, at 31.3%. The public sector represented almost half of all strike days, or 49.4%.

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That was not the case with the protests against the Dehaene Global Plan, which were more concentrated in the fourth quarter.

Several private industries also saw exceptionally high strike totals, including food processing, chemicals and petroleum, transport and logistics, and social services. Vandaele said some actions involved individual protests within a company, while others targeted sector-wide collective agreements.

Regional differences were pronounced. Wallonia recorded 499 strike days per 1,000 employees, compared with 456 in Brussels and 192 in Flanders. Even so, Vandaele said more than 500,000 strike days in Flanders remained a considerable figure.

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More than 500,000 strike days in Flanders is still a considerable figure.