Trade union announces more civil servants' strikes, including in The Hague

Municipal officials will strike in more cities for a better collective bargaining agreement. The trade union FNV announced labor actions in The Hague, Betuwe, the Drechtsteden, and Emmen.

Civil servants working in city cleaning are currently striking in Utrecht. There will be no garbage collection in the city this week. Last week, there were also work interruptions by city cleaners and enforcement officers in Amsterdam, Almere, and other municipalities.

FNV announced that city cleaners would collect no waste in Tiel, Zaltbommel, Culemborg, and Geldermalsen from February 6 to 8. On February 9, there will be work interruptions in Emmen and the Drechtsteden of Harinxveld-Giessendam, Papendrecht, Zwijndrecht, and Dordrecht.

In The Hague, hundreds of employees of the Haagse Straatorganizatie will not work on February 13, 14, and 15. That means they will not clean or maintain the streets in the city on those days.

“For weeks, it has been clear how great the dissatisfaction is among municipal officials about the meager wage offer by the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG),” said Gijsbert Boggia of FNV Overheid. “And yet I was still surprised by the enormous willingness to take action.”

The collective labor agreement for municipal officials covers over 187,000 employees. Collective bargaining between the unions and VNG stalled in mid-November. The municipalities offered a wage increase of 5 percent on February 1 and another 3 percent on April 1, 2024. FNV wanted a wage increase of 12 percent in one year. The union also demanded automatic price compensation in the collective bargaining agreement for 2024.