FNV: no rapprochement with metal companies, more strikes and petition

Photo: ANP

Employees in the metal and technology sector will continue to strike for a while if a better collective labor agreement proposal is not forthcoming. According to the FNV trade union, it is still waiting for companies in the metal sector to make a rapprochement. That is why a petition on behalf of more than 12,000 employees from the sector will be presented to employer negotiator Federation Employers’ Organizations Technology (FWT) on Thursday, including the call for higher wages. A strike is also planned at companies in Limburg.

More strikes are planned in the coming weeks, if employers do not heed the appeal in the petition. FNV says it is not dissatisfied with the more than 12,000 signatures. Nearly 320,000 people come under the Collective Labor Agreement for Metal & Technology, from tens of thousands of companies in the small metal industry, the installation and insulation sector, bodywork construction and gold and silversmiths.

According to the union, the negotiations stalled at the end of October, after which the strikes started. In just over two months there were more than twenty. They usually attract several hundred people. “You do lose some people because it is not at a company in front of the door or in a cozy location,” says a spokesperson for FNV. Instead, ‘strike lanes’ are set up where participants register from the car. The interest from smaller companies also seems to be lower, according to the spokesperson, because employees there feel loyal to customers to come and do their work.

The FWT, which conducts the negotiations on behalf of the employers, has stated several times that it regrets the actions. According to the employers, the demands of the unions are too high. “Strikes do not bring a collective agreement any closer,” the party now says. “A return to the negotiating table will.”

Meanwhile, tensions between the various employers are rising, De Telegraaf wrote last week on the basis of insiders. A number of parties from the sector would be in favor of a further wage increase in order to prevent employees from transferring to sectors with better conditions, but that proposal does not pass. Some companies are said to have already implemented salary increases themselves.