After a five-month strike in the metal sector, employers’ association FME and trade unions FNV and CNV have agreed on a new collective labor agreement. Employees will receive 5.3 percent in two years, the parties report. Employees of ASML, DAF Trucks and Fokker, among others, have gone on strike this year.
The collective labor agreement also stipulates that 2,400 temporary workers will have the prospect of a permanent contract and that employees can stop working up to three years before reaching the state pension age. It has also been agreed that employers and trade unions will work together on a strategic agenda for industrial policy and the labor market. This should, for example, lead to more and better training for employees.
The members of the trade unions FNV and CNV and of the employers’ association FME still have to agree to the agreement.
Special dynamics
FME chairman Theo Henrar and FNV negotiator Albert Kuiper say in a joint telephone conversation with the NOS that they are happy with the agreement and the cooperation. Kuiper: “We are happy that it worked and I am convinced that the collaboration will bring success.”
Henrar: “We didn’t look at the differences, but at what connects us and that has created a special dynamic.” The negotiators have agreed, among other things, to approach companies together to prevent stalemates.
Since September last year, a new collective labor agreement for the sector, which employs 160,000 people, has been discussed. At the beginning of this year, employers offered a wage increase of 2.25 percent over two years. According to the union, this was insufficient, because it would lead to a reduction in purchasing power.
According to FME, the improved economic outlook and rising inflation have made it possible to bid more. Henrar: “It was an uncertain time, but more and more economic signals are going green.”
The unions had planned a number of strikes for the summer, but they have been canceled.
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