NS joins Monday morning’s public transit strike

By Janene Pieters on March 15, 2019 - 08:08
Passengers board a Brussels-bound train at Amsterdam Centraal, 9 May 2018
Passengers board a Brussels-bound train at Amsterdam Centraal, 9 May 2018. (Photo: Zachary Newmark / NL Times)

Monday will be a chaotic day for people who commute to work by public transport. NS announced that it will join an early morning strike held by city- and regional public transit companies, AD reports.

The public transit companies are protesting for freezing the retirement age at 66. For that reason they will strike from 6:00 a.m. for 66 minutes, trade union CNV Vakmensen said. The strike will likely also cause delays after its end.

The strike means that there will be no train, bus, tram or subway traffic in Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam for the first part of morning rush hour on Monday. Trams, buses and subways that are on the timetable for before 6:00 a.m. will also not run, according to the newspaper.

There will also be protest actions in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Den Helder, Hoorn, Alkmaar, Enkhuizen, Utrecht, Zwolle, The Hague, Hengelo, Enschede, Arnhem, Maastricht, Heerlen, and possibly more.

“We are now sending this signal to prevent that we will have to work for longer and longer”, FNV director Henri Janssen said to the newspaper. “This is about a decent and timely pension for everyone. That is why we hope that the public and travelers understand the action.”

Travelers’ association Rover calls the strike disproportionate. According to Rover, travelers should never be the victims of labor actions. “In this case the strike is not even about public transport, but about pensions”, director Freek Bos said to AD.

Rover believes the strike will have consequences for travelers throughout Monday. “If the start of the timetable goes well, you reap the benefits of it all day long, but if it is disrupted at the start of the day, it will have effects throughout the country for a long time”, Bos said.

Monday will also see labor actions in various other sectors in the Netherlands. A 24 hour strike is planned in the sectors construction, metal and cleaning, also for better pension provision. The unions are also calling for strikes in the ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Zeeland.

 

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