Employees in regional transport will go back to work on Monday across the country. As a result, employers’ association VWOV sees national public transport being interrupted, although more than half do drive, which may result in regional differences. For example, no regional trains run in Limburg all day, reports transport company Arriva.
Trade unions FNV and CNV have called for the strikes because the collective labor agreement negotiations are deadlocked. Monday is the third of a total of fifteen strike days, which will be spread over a period of six weeks. The employees of companies such as Arriva, Qbuzz and Keolis want more wages, but also measures to reduce the workload. However, the collective labor agreement negotiations with employers’ association VWOV have stalled. The employers have already indicated several times that they cannot offer what the unions demand.
The VWOV also suspects that the trade unions have a ‘distorted, higher image’ of the number of strikers. Several strikers are said to be members of two unions and there are probably also people registered as strikers on strike days, who are actually free or have reported sick, the employers’ association thinks.
Fred Kagie, chairman of the VWOV: ,,This makes it even clearer that going on strike really makes no sense. Let’s reassemble the puzzle, but not under the pressure of ultimatums or these strikes. We want to sit around the table and look for solutions together. As far as we are concerned, this can also be done with a moderator.” The VWOV does add that it cannot meet the demands of the trade unions because there is no money for that.
The strike relates to a collective labor agreement that applies to some 13,000 employees, mainly bus drivers. There will also be a strike for this collective labor agreement on Wednesday and Friday. In addition, actions have been announced for Tuesday and Thursday in Friesland and Groningen by the regional transport employees of the multimodal collective labor agreement, which mainly includes train staff. Friesland and Groningen will therefore have to deal with a strike in public transport every day this week.
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