I am writing this in e-mail with reference to the report published yesterday regarding the industrial action at Brussels airport. As a person who has been directly struck by this strike I feel that I have to point out some incorrect information in the article.

A short first-hand description of the Brussels airport industrial action:

I am a freelance IT consultant and regularly travel to Antwerp in Belgium to work on-site at a client. I landed at Brussels Airport, along with a colleague of mine, on an Air Malta flight last Sunday at around 7.30 p.m. The strike had commenced only 30 minutes before, apparently quite impromptu, and we were left at the airport for over two hours waiting for our luggage without any news except that there was a strike by the baggage handlers.

At around 10:30 we were given a form to fill in with details of the luggage and advised to go home and wait for their call. Yesterday morning, at an ungodly 7 a.m., I was woken up by a phone call from the airport saying that both our pieces of luggage where in their possession and would be delivered in the evening between 7 and 11 p.m.

More than 48 hours after landing and a few hours after the above mentioned article was published, my colleague's luggage was delivered but there is still no news about mine and the baggage handling company's phone is constantly on an answering machine.

To add insult to injury, the delivery man had the audacity to complain about the fact that we don't have a doorbell at our rented apartment and we attached a note for him to give us a call when he arrives, thus forcing him to make an "expensive" call.

Please note that we both have Belgian SIM cards so you can easily work out how much a local five-second call using a company phone might have put the guy back.

At the time of writing, Brussels airport's website confirms that the workers are still striking and have refused any offers that are on the table. It also says that it might take more than one week to distribute all luggage.

The first thing that comes to mind is the obvious "and I thought such things only happen at home..." And to think that I landed at the city which supposedly is the EU's pride and joy and centre of excellence. Meanwhile, I still wait luggageless...

At the end of the day I sat down with my laptop, not in my best of moods, and I hope one can appreciate that I didn't see the funny side of the article reporting that all luggage from the flight was duly delivered to the respective owners.

Editor's note: The Times was quoting information provided by Air Malta.