Trade union announces PostNL labor actions ahead of Black Friday, holiday shopping

PostNL employees are stepping up the pressure in the collective labor agreement conflict with the company. Trade union FNV announced that postal and parcel employees would take action to reinforce their call for a better collective agreement. That may include strikes. The announcement came exactly one week before Black Friday and the start of the shopping season for Sinterklaas and Christmas.

FNV will discuss when the actions will happen and what they will look like with its members in the coming days. According to the union, PostNL did not respond to its ultimatum that expired on Friday. “The employer had every chance to come up with a better collective bargaining offer, but they let it come to a confrontation,” said Mariska Exalto of FNV.

FNV was already openly speculating about actions at PostNL last month. The company then submitted a new proposal. But according to FNV, this offer will reduce purchasing power, and many people doing physically demanding work will not be able to stop sooner. PostNL would also still not take any steps to permanently employ parcel sorters, who now work as temporary workers.

“PostNL filled its pockets well in the coronavirus times, but employees have hardly noticed it,” said Exalto. “The millions have disappeared into the shareholders’ deep pockets. The only thing the employees can count on is reorganization after reorganization. That is really outrageous.”

The current collective labor agreement expired on 31 March 2022. According to FNV, 19,000 people fall under the PostNL collective agreement. The postal service also employs 16,000 mail deliverers, but they have a different collective labor agreement.

In a previous response, PostNL referred to the company’s latest offer. According to the postal service, these are challenging times for everyone, including PostNL. For example, the company is handling fewer parcels because consumers have less to spend.