The Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) has announced that regional public transport workers across the country will stage another two days of strikes this week after negotiations over salaries and workloads broke down on Wednesday.
The past couple of months have been tumultuous for public transport in the Netherlands, with various rail and public transport operators organising strikes in an attempt to negotiate higher salaries, better work contracts and reduced workloads.
While negotiations between Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) and labour unions were successfully concluded in September, ongoing negotiations between the FNV and regional transport operators have so far remained inconclusive. On Wednesday, the FNV director confirmed that the fourth round of negotiations had also been unsuccessful.
“We are deeply disappointed with the willingness of employers to come to a good collective labour agreement,” FNV's Marijn van der Gaag said in a statement. “Unfortunately, our members now have no choice but to stop working.”
After strikes affected public transport services in both September and October, FNV has now said that, on January 19 and 20, up to 13.000 regional transport workers across the Netherlands will once again down tools.
The strike won’t affect NS rail services, or the majority of city-wide operators, for example the GVB in Amsterdam, RET in Rotterdam and HTM in The Hague. This is due to the fact that workers at these companies fall under different labour agreements.
So far the precise scale of the disruption caused by the upcoming strikes remains unclear, travellers have been warned to expect cancellations and delays, and have been advised to keep an eye on operators’ websites for up-to-date travel information.
Thumb: Jan van der Wolf via Shutterstock.com.