Staff of the Smurfit Kappa packaging factory in Hoogeveen will again stop work for 48 hours tonight. Strikes are also taking place at eight other branches in the country.
Trade unions FNV and CNV held the first strike last week for a better collective labor agreement. According to collective labor agreement negotiator Albert Kuiper of the FNV, Smurfit Kappa has not yet made a good wage offer. The employees demand a wage increase of 14.4 percent, the company’s management offers an increase of 8.8 percent.
There is also a conflict about the system used to track hours worked. According to the unions, it now means that employees work two to three days a year for nothing. “Nobody wants to work for free, not even these people,” says CNV negotiator Hank Oomkes.
An ultimatum from the union expired on June 30. “Unfortunately, this is in line with the way in which the management has set itself up in the collective labor agreement consultations from the start. All our points were immediately swept off the table and the management simply put a mandate on the table.”
Work will be stopped at the start of the evening shift tonight, until Friday evening. Tomorrow morning a strike meeting has been organized at all Smurfit Kappa branches where strikes are taking place.