Travelers across the Netherlands will have to deal with a strike among staff of the Dutch Railways on Friday. Trade unions FNV, CNV and VVMC are holding regional actions in the west and northwest of the country to reinforce their demands for a new collective labor agreement. The NS then decided not to run trains throughout the country, to prevent chaos on platforms.
The NS states that the areas where staff are on strike are larger this time. It is therefore hardly possible to set up a reliable timetable with trains that cross the entire country.
‘Shortly before a train leaves, we only know for sure whether a conductor and driver will run the train. Travelers are already waiting on the platform. We want to offer a predictable and reliable journey. In this way we prevent full platforms, which creates unsafe situations, or that a passenger gets stranded,” the company writes on its own site. The NS only wants to keep Schiphol Airport accessible by train.
Previous regional strikes have already severely disrupted train traffic. Due to a strike in the middle of the Netherlands, with the important junction Utrecht, hardly any NS trains ran in the country.
Unions went on strikes because, among other things, the NS did not comply with their demand that salaries automatically move with inflation. They also want the company to do something about the workload. Earlier this week, the Dutch Railways (NS) presented a new collective labor agreement offer. The unions then decided to talk to the NS, but not to suspend the planned actions. Strikes are also planned in large parts of the Netherlands next Tuesday and Thursday.
Regional transport Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel is also on strike
Employees of regional transport in Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel will also be the last to stop working on Friday. In recent days, their colleagues in the other provinces went on strike for a better collective labor agreement.
Carrier Arriva warns travelers in Friesland and Groningen to take into account disruptions and failures of buses. The regional train is expected to run on the normal timetable. Arriva does not expect much nuisance for the buses and trains in Overijssel.
The regional strikes precede a national strike that the trade union FNV has planned for September 16. The intention is that intercity buses and regional trains will not run anywhere on that day.
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