Wednesday was the last of five strikes by NS employees at the moment, but it is certainly not excluded that new strikes will follow soon. Trade unions and national representatives are not close to a new agreement on working conditions.

The past week has been almost every day: drivers and conductors have stopped working across the country. On Tuesday, there was hardly a train in Holland, because there was a strike in the Utrecht region, which is very important for the NS. This led to hundreds of kilometers of excessive traffic jams on the road.

No new strikes are currently planned in the NS. “But we are very willing to take action,” says Henri Janssen of FNV Spoor. “NS employees want to be able to do their job well. But there are four hundred vacancies. As a result, the work pressure is very great and this is at the expense of the traveler. But despite the strikes, we have heard nothing from the NS in recent days.”

Consultations will soon take place between the FNV and other trade unions CNV and VVMC to discuss the new measures. It is not clear what this would look like. Jansen says that if there were new measures, unions would “rise”. This means that the new measures are larger than those of recent days, such as the national strike.

The NS and the guilds did not plan a new conversation

The National Assembly reported that it was open to new consultations with unions about wages and other working conditions. Whether the company also wants to make concessions, she does not want to say. There are currently no scheduled talks between the unions and the carrier. So the chance of new action seems high, especially since the two camps are quite far apart from each other.

For example, unions want wages to move with inflation from now on, which means a significant increase. For example, the cost of goods and services in August increased by 13.6 percent compared to last year. In addition, unions want one payment of 600 euros and an additional 100 euros per month.

According to the national census, this means a 20% increase in wages which is unrealistic. The carrier posted profit in the first half of this year, but that was due to government support and windfall gains. If these matters are ignored, the bottom line is a shortfall of 225 million euros. This is mainly due to the delayed numbers of passengers, especially in the early months of this year, when there was still a closure.

Wednesday announce Trade unions are calling for strikes for regional carriers, such as Arriva and Connexxion, as a follow-up to previous measures. It seems as if things are going in the same direction for NS.