‘What a rotten country’, Angela Izzo (52) grumbles loudly. The Italian tourist will be at Amsterdam Central station on Tuesday morning. That there are hardly any trains today came as an ugly surprise. In the afternoon Izzo flies back to Bologna via Eindhoven. But her mood hits rock bottom when she learns how much a taxi costs. ‘250 euros? I can’t afford that. Why is there no alternative transport?’
Izzo had counted on the train, and she’s not alone. Now that the fear of the coronavirus has subsided, there are again a million travelers in the compartments every day. But since last week, the reliability of the Dutch Railways (NS) has been disappointing. This is due to strikes by NS employees. They demand measures against the high workload. In addition, they want to be compensated for inflation, which is likely to reach 9.9 percent this year. Three railway unions hope to force a breakthrough in the collective labor agreement negotiations through so-called relay strikes, in which employees take turns laying down their work and thus disrupting train traffic.
Logistics nightmare
During the first three regional strikes, the effects were mainly felt in the region. But the fourth day of action, which includes strikes in Utrecht, Amersfoort and Hoofddorp, will have a national impact. After all, Utrecht Central is the largest railway junction in the Netherlands, keeping the timetable upright is a logistical nightmare.
Many travelers got out and took the car: on Tuesday morning there was more than 500 kilometers of traffic jam, according to the ANWB a doubling of what is usual. At stations, it appears that it is mainly tourists and international students for whom the strike is disrupting travel plans. Like Angela Izzo, or Vivien (22). The Taiwanese student has just arrived at Schiphol and, after traveling for 30 hours, would like to go to her new student city of Groningen as soon as possible. Today, to get there, she only has to share a taxi with four international students. Cost: 100 euros per person.
State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen (Infrastructure) considers that train failure a ‘bad business card for public transport’. She called the NS and unions Tuesday again on resolve their conflict quickly. But there is no sign of a quick way out of the impasse for the time being. Both the NS management and the railway unions believe that it is the other person’s turn. The unions want the management to make a better collective labor agreement proposal; the management wants the unions to reconvene.
Competitive
Until then, employees will remain ‘combatant’, says VVMC union director Rob de Groot, pointing to the percentage of employees who participate in the actions. That is estimated to be over 90 percent. But anyone who thinks this translates into a big manifestation, with banners and rousing speeches from trade union leaders, will be disappointed. On Tuesday, the strikers barricaded themselves in the staff canteen in the further deserted Utrecht Central Station. They report at the start of the shift to collect the strike compensation. Some return home afterwards. Others linger: drink coffee, lay a card.
The door remains closed to outsiders. A delegation of Utrecht PvdA members is also not welcome. They arrived early with cake. They want to encourage the strikers and give a pendulum to the workers’ struggle. But the NS employees are unrelenting and the politicians are dripping. In the morning sun they eat the cakes themselves a little later.
Wednesday again part train traffic flat
Travelers will continue to be affected by the strike on Wednesday, the NS reports. Due to Tuesday’s strike, some trains are not in the right place. In addition, the railway employees will again stop working on Wednesday. As a result, no trains will run in large parts of Gelderland, Overijssel, North Brabant and Limburg on the fifth day of the relay strike. This also has an impact on the timetable in other regions, the NS reports, including on train traffic to Austria and Switzerland.