Business Notes LABOR

Rarely do trade unions go on strike to help overseas brethren. But among some Belgian supermarket employees, solidarity now includes U.S. workers as well. For the past month, members of a Belgian retail-employees union have struck stores owned by the Delhaize-Le Lion retailing giant.

The work stoppages are intended to persuade Delhaize to give a better deal to its nearly 30,000 workers in its 522 Food Lion stores in the U.S. Most of those employees receive no benefits and are paid 40% less than the wages earned at rival stores, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which hopes to organize the Food Lion workers. The Belgian workers plan to keep up their campaign for a year.