Employees at 64 hospitals striking today for better labor agreements

The employees of dozens of hospitals will stop regular work for a day from 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. They are striking for better collective agreements about their wages, among other things.

On wards at 64 hospital locations, staff will run on “Sunday service,” meaning they’ll only provide emergency care. How many departments participate differs per hospital. According to the hospitals, they’ve informed the patients whose appointments are affected in advance.

Staff will also participate in labor actions in hospitals on Thursday. For example, there will be speeches and “sit-ins” at several hospitals. Employees sit on the floor together to demonstrate how the employers' organization Dutch Association of Hospitals (NVZ) has let them down.

The trade unions demand more wages than the NVZ offers but also higher compensation for on-call services and better agreements about rosters. According to Joost Veldt of CNV, the unions want to “counter the exodus of personnel from the sector.”

NVZ chairman Ad Melkert wants the Ministry of Public Health and health insurers to contribute money for raising healthcare workers’ wages. The hospitals cannot afford the wage increases the unions demand, he said. At the end of February, Public Health Minster Ernst Kuipers said he would not respond to Melkert’s call.