Record number of people went on strike in Netherlands last year

Last year a record number of 319 thousand employees in the Netherlands went on strike, resulting in a total of 391 thousand working days lost - the largest number in 24 years, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday. The vast majority of strikers worked in healthcare and education.

In 2019, there were a total of 26 strikes, less than the 32 strikes in 2017 and 28 in 2018. But as more people participated in the strikes, the total number of lost working days was higher. At 319 thousand employees involved in the strikes, the previous record of 147 thousand striking workers from 2017 was easily broken. 

Historically, strikes most frequently come from the industrial, transport and storage sectors. This was also the case last year, with 12 strikes in industry and 7 in transport and storage. But the vast majority - 90 percent - of striking workers came from education and healthcare last year.