National railroad strikes could start Monday as ProRail rejects union's wage demands

More railway strikes are looming in the Netherlands. Railroad infrastructure manager ProRail said in a statement on Wednesday that it rejected wage demands from key labor union FNV during collective labor agreement negotiations. ProRail said it expects the union to start work stoppages in protest from November 11, a spokesperson confirmed to the Telegraaf.

FNV had given ProRail until Thursday to agree to its wage demand. The union wanted a 15 percent wage increase for low-income workers and a 10 percent increase for workers in the middle income segment. But ProRail said it will go no higher than an average increase of 5.2 percent, with lower salary groups receiving a 7.9 percent bump.

“We reject the FNV ultimatum. FNV will, therefore, take action, is the expectation,” a ProRail spokesperson told the newspaper. The rail manager added that the trade unions CNV and VHS Railprofessionals have agreed to ProRail’s final offer.

Essentially, the demands from the union would require ProRail to spend the equivalent of 49 million euros more than what the railroad manager found acceptable. "ProRail already indicated in that final offer that it had gone to the limit in terms of wage improvement," the company stated. The extra money requested by FNV would then have to be financed by ProRail from its own resources. That is therefore at the expense of our tasks as rail manager and of jobs at ProRail."

FNV has not yet responded to ProRail’s rejection. In its ultimatum, the trade union said it would start work interruptions and strikes from the Monday after the ultimatum.

"ProRail is facing a major maintenance task for the railway and must keep a close eye on costs. We have sought a responsible balance between a better collective labour agreement and the costs involved. ProRail wants to remain in line with the market: competitive and at the same time balanced," ProRail added.

The ProRail collective bargaining agreement covers around 3,500 employees of the rail manager. Many work in train traffic control. If they go on strike, it would be impossible to run trains safely, impacting travelers and freight transport.