Tuesday, there will be no trains running in the entire Randstad area. The NS strike, which was initially announced only for the West region, has been further extended to the North-West region on Sunday.
The personnel will stop working on Tuesday at 4:00 AM, reports railway union VVMC on Sunday. The train service will resume on Wednesday at 4:00 AM.
A strike had already been announced in areas including The Hague, Rotterdam, Leiden, Zeeland, and part of West-Brabant. “Because NS is not seeking any rapprochement, the VVMC is also adding the North-West region,” the railway union writes in a press release on Sunday.
Tuesday’s strikes are part of a longer series of actions. On Friday, virtually no NS trains ran throughout the country.
Unions FNV and VVMC have announced more regional strikes. On Thursday, there will be a strike in the northwest and east of the Netherlands. On Monday, June 16, NS employees will stop working in North and South Netherlands. A nationwide strike may follow on Tuesday, June 17.
No agreement yet on collective labor agreement
The NS and the unions have not yet reached an agreement on a new collective labor agreement after 4.5 months of negotiations. The railway company is sticking to an offer of a wage increase of 2.55 percent. But the employees find that too little and want compensation for the high inflation.
No agreement has also been reached on early retirement for heavy work, which allows people to stop working earlier. “Conductors and machinists work irregular hours, under high pressure, and deal with aggression and violence on a daily basis. Yet NS refuses to adjust the scheme for heavy occupations so far,” writes VVMC.