Trade unions are intensifying negotiations to get more attention for their cause: compensation for the loss of purchasing power of employees. But it often remains with threats, because many collective labor agreements have been concluded recently. There is no question of a strike wave.
At the moment, strikes are only taking place at a few small companies. The employees of the Limburg car factory Nedcar in Born resumed work on Friday. Earlier this week they stopped work to reinforce their demands for a better social plan. Thousands of people are in danger of being fired at Nedcar, and the unions want good agreements about their severance scheme.
Unions are still persisting in tough wage demands, which can be as high as 14.3 percent. They demand that workers be compensated because many people have lost purchasing power. Wages can also rise considerably, since many companies make a profit, according to FNV and CNV.
But a so-called ‘hot spring’ is not forthcoming. In Germany, train and air traffic came to a standstill several times. And the German railway staff will again stop work on Sunday evening, for fifty hours. Such a massive strike has not yet occurred in our country this year. In fact, not all employees participated in both the regional transport strike and the one at Albert Heijn. The enthusiasm is therefore not there among all the staff.
There are many threats from the trade unions, and there are also actions, but in the end negotiations continue again and again. This happened, for example, in regional transport, where the strikes caused a lot of dissatisfaction among travelers. And at Albert Heijn, there was an eleven-day strike in various distribution centers. The parties then decided to sit down again and within a day and a half there was an agreement on a 10 percent wage increase.
‘We have a culture of negotiation in our country’
Figures from Statistics Netherlands show that we are not shutting things down en masse in the Netherlands. There were a total of 33 strikes in the past year. In 2021 there were 22 strikes. Last year, fewer workers were involved in those strikes, which means fewer working days were lost: 39,000 in 2022, compared to 59,000 in 2021.
“The climate is harder,” says a spokesperson for employers’ association AWVN. “But we still have a culture of negotiation in our country. Parties always look at what is possible per sector or company. There is no question of a strike wave.”
Enough new collective labor agreements without strikes
Enough collective labor agreements are therefore concluded without actions and strikes. For example, the hairdressers received 9 percent more wages without even an hour of action being held. Earlier this week, the unions called for actions at Philips. They were suspended not even a day later. And now there is a new collective agreement.
Wage increases have also been historically high in recent months. The counter stands at an average of almost 6.6 percent this year.
2023-05-13 03:00:15
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