Garbage strikes announced for Rotterdam, The Hague, Groningen

Trade union FNV announced garbage strikes in Rotterdam, The Hague, and Groningen in the coming week. Garbage collectors and city cleaners in Groningen will strike for four days starting Friday. In The Hague, the strike will last three days from Monday. And the Rotterdam strike will last six days beginning Wednesday.

The civil servants are striking for a better collective bargaining agreement. City cleaners and enforcement officers in other municipalities also went on strike in the past weeks, including a week-long strike in Utrecht that left the city with mountains of trash piling up on the streets.

“The latest wage offer from the VNG shows completely insufficient appreciation. Nor have the employers approached other important subjects such as vitality,” Marikieke Manschot of FNV said. “Inflation is still extremely high, and the tightness on the labor market, together with the workload, is still massive.”

Negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement for civil servants between the unions and the association of Dutch municipalities VNG stalled in December. FNV wants a 12 percent wage increase for 2023, automatic price compensation, and measures against the high workload. In its last offer on 14 December, the VNG offered a 5 percent wage increase on 1 February 2023 and another 3 percent on 1 April 2024.

“The willingness to take action is massive,” Manschot said. “Like an employee recently said to me: This is really a tipping point. This far and no further. We demand what we deserve!”

In addition to garbage collectors and other city cleaners, enforcement officers in Rotterdam will also take action on Friday, 17 February. On that day, enforcers in Rotterdam will not hand out any fines.