Public transport workers back on strike; Groningen, Friesland affected every day this week

Regional public transport workers are again going on strike at different locations in the Netherlands on Monday. The FNV and CNV labor unions called for the strike because of the deadlocked negotiations for a new collective agreement. Monday marks the third out of a total of fifteen strike days in this series of demonstrations, which will be spread out over a period of six weeks.

The strike mainly relates to a collective bargaining agreement that applies to some 13,000 employees, mainly bus drivers. There will also be strikes regarding this agreement on Wednesday and Friday. In addition, the regional public transport workers covered by a separate contract, mainly train staff, have announced labor actions for Monday as well as Tuesday and Thursday in Friesland and Groningen. As a result, the two provinces will have to contend with a public transport strike every day this week.

Some of the train routes affected by Monday’s strike include Arriva’s service between Nijmegen and Roermond, Roermond and Maastricht and routes with Heerlen as an endpoint. The strikes affect Keolis service between Zwolle and Kenpen, Zwolle and Enschede, Zutphen and Oldenzaal, and from Hengelo to German cities. The Breng service between Arnhem and Doetinchem will also be disrupted Monday morning.

The employees of companies such as Arriva, Qbuzz and Keolis are demanding higher wages, but also measures to reduce their workload. However, their collective contract talks with employers' association VWOV have stalled. The employers’ group has already indicated several times that they cannot meet the unions’ demands.

Because the collective bargaining conflict is ongoing, the FNV has called on the national government to intervene. FNV leader Marijn van der Gaag said on Friday that regional transport employees are overworked in part because providers cut back on breaks and normal scheduling of staff when they make bids for new routes.

Because the government introduced the tendering system and is responsible for it, the FNV believes the government is jointly responsible for the current situation. "Left or right, we just want it to be solved," said Van der Gaag.