Hundreds of thousands of Dutch workers will begin several weeks of protests and work disruptions after talks with the government about pay and conditions broke down, the largest trade union federation said on Saturday. The FNV said negotiations on behalf of 700,000 workers, including police and ambulance staff, metal workers, and civil servants stalled over wage demands and a deadline set for the government had lapsed.
"The limit has been reached at the negotiating table," Ton Heerts, head of the FNV, said in a statement. "Employers keep coming to the table with worse terms for collective labour agreements, while people have been giving up salary for years." Under the Dutch labour system, large scale employers, including the government and private sector companies, negotiate long-term, collective labour agreements with trade unions. Those negotiations have now broken down, which could lead to widespread strikes if a deal is not brokered in coming weeks.
More than a month of work disruptions and protests will begin on Tuesday with a demonstration by ambulance workers. It will be broadened to strikes in various sectors in the coming weeks, a spokeswoman for the FNV said. The Dutch economy is recovering after years of stagnation and many workers, who usually received annual indexed pay increases, have had their wages frozen as a result of deep government-imposed austerity cuts.