The willingness to take action is high and is only growing in regional transport.
Employers in regional transport do not respond to the ultimatum of trade unions FNV and CNV, on the contrary, that agreement seems very far away because the employers have informed the trade unions that they cannot meet the requirements.
According to Fred Kagie, chairman of the Public Transport Employers Association (VWOV), the ultimatum, and with it the threat of strike, does not provide a basis for further collective labor agreement negotiations. The strikes threatened by the unions in order to give extra force to their demands therefore seem inevitable.
For example, the FNV demands a wage increase of 16,9 percent for a collective labor agreement for one year, the CNV demands 14 percent spread over eighteen months.
The unions announced earlier, when announcing the ultimatum, that they would hold new actions in regional bus transport from February 22 if their demands were ignored by employers. Those actions are now scheduled for Wednesday 22 and Friday 24 February. Trade unions and employers have reached an impasse in the negotiations that apply to some 13.000 employees, mainly bus drivers.
The collective labor agreement for regional transport does not apply to staff of the city transport companies in Amsterdam and The Hague. Most RET employees in Rotterdam also fall under a different collective labor agreement, just like NS staff.
strike pays off
Trade unions in particular prosper in all strikes. The number of members is growing fast. There is a lot going on historically right now. At the beginning of last week, 14 strikes were already registered at FNV, while normal numbers are around 22 on an annual basis. Chairman FNV Tuur Elzinga indicates that the strikes are good news for the unions. Since September 2022, we have seen new membership growth every month, especially among young people. “With an aging labor market, this is also our new constituency“. According to Elzinga, people are eager to stop working too. That wage increases of up to 27% are requested is another discussion.
