Rotterdam, Amsterdam ambulance workers go on strike

Ambulance workers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam are striking on Monday. Patients making use of ordered ambulance transport will not be transported between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Ambulances will still be responding to emergency calls. The ambulance workers are protesting for a better collective bargaining agreement, according to union FNV Care & Welfare. "The actions were announced a few days in advance so that hospitals can take it into account with the patient planning", a spokesperson for the union said to NU. "Ambulance employees have been sitting without collective agreements for eight months and have been performing punctuality actions for three months" according to Fred Seifert, manager of FNV Care & Welfare, on the union website. "It is incomprehensible to them that their employers have been stubborn for so long and will not give their employees a decent wage increase, good working conditions and an acceptable elderly policy. It is after all difficult and very responsible work they carry out day and night. That employers do not seem to appreciate it is unacceptable." Similar actions have already been performed in The Hague, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Haarlem, Hengelo, Den Helder, Zwolle and Alkmaar. This is the third such action in Rotterdam. Ambulance workers will continue protesting until employer Ambulancezorg Nederland agrees to a decent collective bargaining agreement, according to the Union.