Labor strikes: Trash collectors, civil servants & postal workers set to stop working

Trade union FNV announced upcoming strikes among civil servants and postal workers this month. PostNL truck drivers will strike on Friday. The civil servants’ strike will likely start with trash collectors no longer collecting bins and enforcement officers no longer issuing fines, but FNV is still working out the details.

According to FNV, PostNL reached an agreement with two other unions on Friday but did not invite FNV. “It is, of course, bizarre that PostNL did not invite the largest union. They don’t seem to realize that they are excluding part of their own staff as a result,” Mariska Exalto of the trade union said.

According to Exalto, the drivers and other FNV members at PostNL are not satisfied with the collective labor agreements currently on the table. “They are furious about it.” The FNV members at PostNL want their wages to rise in line with inflation and for temporary workers to get a permanent contract after nine months, among other things.

The PostNL truck workers will strike from 4:00 a.m. on Friday, January 13, to 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 14. The strike will cause delays in post and parcel delivery, though FNV promised that funeral mail and medical shipments wouldn’t be affected.

The association of Dutch municipalities VNG also failed to meet FNV’s ultimatum for presenting a better collective bargaining agreement for municipal officials by 10:00 a.m. today. The trade union is therefore working on labor actions, Marieke Manschot of FNV said to ANP.

The trade union will take action on two tracks. The first includes work stoppages and strikes, which will happen first in municipalities where civil servants have been considering labor actions for some time. “Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. But I do not rule out that these work interruptions can also spread to other municipalities. Or that civil servants in other municipalities will not strike earlier,” Manschot said to the newswire.

The second track is a national demonstration in Utrecht on February 15. “That demonstration is partly physical, but there will also be a possibility for people to attend the demonstration remotely. We have used this form of demonstration before, during the coronavirus crisis. This way, we can involve as many people as possible,” Manschot said.

The FNV director expects the labor actions to move beyond trash collectors and enforcement officers to civil servants with office jobs. “At the end of the day, this could lead to a delay in the application process for a passport or driver’s license, for example,” said Manschot. But she stressed that the focus is currently on enforcement and cleaning services.

FNV wants a wage increase of 12 percent for civil servants, as well as a once-off payment of 1,200 euros and automatic price compensation in the collective labor agreement for 2024.