The strikes in regional transport must be stopped quickly, says the Drenthe College. The MBO school, together with the Graafschap College in Gelderland, has expressed its dissatisfaction with this in an open letter. “Stop it, the damage is too great, the yield and attention too small”, they call on the unions and striking bus and train workers to stop campaigning.
“A strike has a disproportionate effect on students in the region because there is simply no alternative transport available”, Arwin Nimis (Drenthe College) and Michiel Gerlagh (Graafschap College) grumble. They emphasize that a shortage of skilled workers such as painters, technicians, hairdressers and cooks is felt daily.
“Those shortages of good MBO students are getting bigger, with many students still experiencing the consequences of the corona period on a daily basis. And now they are also being hit by strikes in regional transport,” they write disappointedly.
The two are dismayed that students in sparsely populated rural areas in particular are the victims of the strike. This while, according to them, MBO schools are ‘doing everything they can’ to keep locations open in order to serve students all over the country.
The five-day strike of the dissatisfied bus drivers, conductors and train drivers is not helping, the school administrators conclude. “The right to strike is a great asset, but these strikes in the region are not a solution. That generates too little attention. Strike in a place where it affects employers and drivers and drivers can drive normally. Before those MBO students and before those craftswoman and craftsman of the future. Because they deserve it.”