Amsterdam public transit workers to strike on March 18

Public transit workers in Amsterdam will strike for part of Monday, March 18th, as part of a national action day for better pensions, trade unions CNV, VCP and FNV announced. Amsterdam public transit company GVB confirmed the strike to Het Parool.

Local public transit workers in Rotterdam and The Hague will also strike on March 18th. The unions demand that the state pension age, which is currently increasing constantly, be frozen at 66 years. To underline this requirement, the public transit workers in the three large cities will strike for 66 minutes starting at 6:00 a.m. on March 18th. 

That means that during the first part of the morning rush hour, Amsterdam commuters will have to make do without the bus, subway and tram. It is not yet clear whether the ferry staff will participate.

According to the unions, there will also be strikes at the ports in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Zeeland. The striking workers will gather at ten regional action meetings, spread across the country. 

In addition to freezing the pension age, the unions also want further indexation of pensions and the expansion of pension possibilities for both freelancers and employees.