Garbage strikes suspended; Municipalities, unions reach labor agreement

The association of Dutch municipalities VNG and the trade unions reached a collective bargaining agreement for municipal workers. Garbage strikes currently happening in several cities will be suspended.

Municipal employees in the lowest wage scales will receive a 13 percent increase. These include garbage collectors and employees of the cleaning services, for example. In the slightly higher wage scale, which includes enforcement officers, employees will get a 12 percent increase. Wages in the highest scales will rise by almost 7 percent, a spokesperson for VNG said to ANP.

Municipal workers will also get an extra day off this year. And from next year, 5 May will be a fixed day off for them, NOS reported.

“The men and women of the municipal cleaning services and enforcement have let the Netherlands see and hear in recent weeks that they are indispensable. But also that they can hardly make ends meet. With this agreement, we prevent them from being forced to seek refuge in another sector where wages are higher,” CNV negotiator Juan Schot said.

City cleaning services and municipal enforcement officers have been striking in various municipalities for weeks. A week-long strike started in Amsterdam on Monday, leaving piles of garbage on the streets after only one day. City cleaners in Den Bosch and Maastricht started their strike today. That strike was expected to cause many problems, given that Carnival ended in the two cities last night and that trash had not been cleaned up yet.