Less than two years after their major strike, on Monday 2 January cleaners, supported by the FNV Bondgenoten union, started a national campaign with strikes on ten railway stations. In the next days, major principals like banks, universities and casinos were targeted. Negotiations over a new collective agreement for 150,000 cleaners stalled in December, and by 1 January the former agreement expired. The union asks for a 5% pay increase, employers’ paying for the first days of illness, more training facilities, and less work pressure. The employers ‘ association offered a 2% pay hike and 1% contribution for training and pension goals. FNV Bondgenoten in particular demands more respect from employers and principals, and compliance with the training paragraph in the former agreement. Instead of the planned 30,000 cleaners, only 3,000 have received training, according to Bondgenoten negotiator Ron Meyer. On 5 January, 2,500 cleaners demonstrated in front of Philips’ headquarters in Amsterdam (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February, March and April 2010).
English: http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/dutch-cleaners-take-national-strike-action
Dutch: De Volkskrant, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 January 2011; http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/nieuws/acties_en_campagnes/gewoon_goed …
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl or the communications officer of the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2012.