Polish music blares from the speakers and there is even catering. The temporary workers sit, lie and stand along the road. It looks more like a picnic than a strike action.
One of the strikers is Paulina Nietupska. She has been working as a temporary worker in the Albert Heijn distribution center in Tilburg for nine years. “People have to wake up. We are not slaves. We pay taxes here, we send our children to school here and we come to live here. We are the same as Dutch people.”
This promotion is of great importance, says Cihan Ugural of the FNV. “In schedules, rewards, vacations, continued payment in diseases, you name it. Daily they notice the difference with permanent forces.”
When asked if that is not part of it as a temporary worker, Ugural is resolutely. “That is often the image, but that could be if temporary workers are only intended for the reception of sick and peak,” he explains. “But in the places where these people work is seventy to eighty percent of people in the workplace temporary worker. And not for one or two years, but for decades. So no!”
‘Exploiting industry’
The ABU is located in the Kleine Lijnden, the General Association of temporary employment agencies. They represent the employers during the collective bargaining negotiations. “We also call them the ‘exploitation industry’,” says Ugural. “They don’t want to meet a collective agreement with us in which we are equal as permanent forces.”
Pile of clothing and flags
But the Polish temporary workers also expressed strong criticism of the FNV itself during this strike campaign. As soon as there is a struggle, angry Polish voices sound. A few of them take off their red FNV shirts and vests out of anger. Within a few minutes there is a whole pile of red things in the grass along the road.
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