To enforce a better collective labor agreement, thousands of pharmacy employees throughout the country stop work on Thursdays and Fridays. It is the second national strike in history, after pharmacies also closed their doors on November 12 last year.
“There is still no better collective labor agreement, so we have no choice but to take action again,” say collective labor agreement negotiators Ralph Smeets (FNV) and Albert Spieseke (CNV). “The employees’ patience has run out. Their message is loud and clear: Give us what we are entitled to, because we will not be defeated. If an agreement is not reached quickly, national strikes will continue.”
People who urgently need medication can still collect it, report the unions FNV and CNV, which are organizing the strike. “If you cannot go to your own pharmacy, they can refer you to another pharmacy,” pharmacist Stephan Bontekoning told RTV Drenthe earlier this week.
Actions will be taken in the pharmacy sector from September. Despite months of strikes, unions and employers have not come any closer to each other, the unions report. According to these organizations, employers still do not want to go further than a wage increase of two percent. The collective labor agreement negotiators call the pharmacists’ attitude “bizarre.” “They apparently still don’t see that their staff is really serious.”
FNV and CNV are demanding a six percent wage increase with retroactive effect from July 1, 2024, plus an end-of-year bonus of two percent. In 2025, wages must also increase by a similar percentage. In addition, the unions want all hours worked to be paid. This means that short preparation moments, such as fifteen minutes before opening, also have to be paid for.