After train strikes wreaked havoc across the country at the end of August, staff working at regional public transport operators (e.g. Connexxion, Arriva) have announced five days of strikes, starting from Tuesday, September 6, affecting public transport services across the Netherlands.
Last week, The Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) announced that regional transportation workers would be staging industrial action as a follow-up to the various strikes staged over the summer. Employees are attempting to negotiate a better collective labour agreement, with better working conditions, higher salaries, and a more manageable workload.
“The sector must become more attractive so that new staff can be recruited. At the moment there is a lot of turnover, resulting in staff shortages. As a result, the workload increases and with it the absenteeism due to illness,” FNV’s Marijn van der Gaag explained, raising concerns about the effect staff shortages have had on the availability of services.
Strikes will kick off on Tuesday, September 6 in the provinces of Flevoland, South Holland, and Zeeland. Workers in North Holland and Utrecht will follow on September 7, and on September 8 in Gelderland, North Brabant, and Limburg. The final day of regional strikes, September 9, will take place in Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, and Overijssel. On September 16, regional workers are expected to host a national strike, affecting services across the Netherlands.
Luckily, the vast majority of city-wide operators, for example the GVB in Amsterdam, RET in Rotterdam and HTM in The Hague, will not be affected by the strikes and will continue to run as normal. The only exception to this is in Utrecht, where public transport in the city will be affected by the strikes on September 7 and September 16.