Regional transport throughout the province will be on strike for three days for, among other things, a better collective labor agreement. This is reported by the trade union FNV. Fewer buses run on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Previous strikes have not helped, according to the union.
It is not yet possible to say exactly what the consequences will be for travelers with regional transport. It remains to be seen per day how many drivers will stop working and which bus lines will then be cancelled. It is therefore recommended to keep a close eye on the information every day. Last time, about seventy percent of all drivers went on strike and thirty percent continued to drive. The FNV now expects more drivers to go on strike.
Because despite previous strikes, drivers and employers are not coming closer together. “They just raise their middle finger to their own staff,” said FNV director Marijn van der Gaag. According to Van der Gaag, drivers find this very annoying for travelers, but employers leave them no other choice. “This strike is really due to the employers’ unwillingness to come to a fair collective labor agreement.”
Pay raise
The bus drivers demand, among other things, a wage increase of ten percent. They also want something to be done about the high workload and staff shortage. “The drivers are really fed up now and are not going to let it go. They will continue until that fair collective labor agreement is in place,” says the trade unionist. Due to the high work pressure, there is also a high absenteeism due to illness. “And that in turn creates even more work pressure. It is high time that employers paid attention to this.”
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