Employees of NS are striking again on Tuesday, protesting against what they see as a meager collective labor agreement offer from the railway company. The actions are taking place in the East and Northwest regions. These include Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport.
The work stoppage starts on Tuesday, June 17 at 4:00 AM and lasts until Wednesday at 3:59 AM. The consequences for train traffic in those regions are not yet entirely clear.
The Northwest region covers almost all of North Holland. The East region includes the cities of Arnhem, Nijmegen, Hengelo, Enschede and Zutphen. Train traffic in other regions may also be affected by the strikes.
Unions FNV and VVMC have called for the strike because NS would not compromise. The union and employees are dissatisfied with NS’s wage offer. They also want better agreements on working conditions.
“The management of NS only wants to sit down with the unions again if the actions are suspended, but offers virtually nothing new in return. We find that unacceptable,” said FNV director Henri Janssen.
The staff has already stopped work several times in recent weeks. For example, far fewer trains ran last Friday, and all NS train traffic was shut down on Tuesday.
NS initially offered a wage increase of 2.55 percent. The railway company later increased that to 3.25 percent, but that is still not enough for the unions. They point out that inflation according to statistics office CBS is 3.3 percent and that the staff would therefore still lose out even with the improved offer.
The various parties met again on Monday to discuss the collective labor agreement conflict, but that did not lead to a solution.