Many bus drivers to go on 3-day strike from Wednesday

Regional transit bus drivers will go on strike for three days this week for a "decent" collective labor agreement including several demands, labor union FNV reports. Despite previous strikes, drivers and employers are not any closer to making a deal. "They just raise their middle finger to their own staff," said FNV director Marijn van der Veel.

The bus drivers will stop working from Wednesday to Friday. According to Van der Veel, drivers think this will be very irritating for passengers, but the employers have left them with no other choice. "This strike is really due to the employers' unwillingness to come to a fair collective labor agreement," says the trade union leader. "The drivers are really fed up now and are not going to let it go. They will continue until a fair collective labor agreement is in place."

One of the bus drivers’ demands is a wage increase of 10 percent. They also want something to be done about the high workload and staff shortages. According to Van der Veel, there is a high level of absenteeism among drivers as a result of the high workload. "And that in turn creates even more work pressure. It is high time that employers paid attention to this," he argued.

The Association of Public Transport Employers (VWOV) said the strikes are incomprehensible. The association’s chair, Fred Kagie, said he does not understand why drivers would strike now for a collective labor agreement that is expiring at the end of this year.

"We have already invited FNV a number of times. But the demands that the union now sets are about the future, for example about work pressure. I do not see how those requirements can be introduced retroactively in the current collective labor agreement." Kagie therefore made an appeal to the union workers threatening a strike: "Come to the table and stop campaigning."

VWOV concluded an agreement with trade union CNV last week. It was agreed that drivers will receive a one-off payment of 1,000 euros, which will be paid in November. The collective labor agreement for Public Transport was concluded at the beginning of this year, but since then things have changed. Kagie noted that CNV was willing to adjust, and negotiate a deal with the association.