Until Wednesday afternoon 5 p.m., Fokker drivers had been given the time to respond to a substantive offer of the trade unions. “But it remained deafening.” And so there are strikes from employees of the aircraft component builder, with a factory in Hoogeveen where about a thousand people work.
When the strike is still to be determined. “Tomorrow morning (Thursday, ed.), A flyer will be distributed to employees in which we draw them to them that they should keep an eye on their e-mail,” says Jan Meeder, director of FNV Metaal. “But that will happen somewhere in the coming weeks.”
Fokker’s social plan is on the negotiating table. The employee organizations are for the most part satisfied with the social plan that has been in place since 2019, but Fokker wants to save there. “It may have gone a little less with the company in 2024, but the prospects and opportunities for the coming years are promising,” says Meeder. “And the responsible managers have received spacious rewards.”
It is important that a decent severance payment is being offered, because there are signs that there will be dismissed within Fokker in the short term, which besides Hoogeveen also has branches in Helmond and Papendrecht. A reorganization has already been announced at the latter factory. “We don’t have any concrete indications for dismissals in Hoogeveen yet, but we have learned that there are plans to move part of the production process abroad. That could also be at the expense of employees in Hoogeveen.”
The negotiations between Fokker and the trade unions started on 11 February, there have already been five conversations, but both parties have not yet come together. And so there are strikes coming, where, according to Meeder, three factories are going to lay down the work in succession. “What we find desirable is that the management comes with a decent bid. That does not happen, as is now, we put the work next to us.”