Hundreds of employees of ASML and DAF will lay down their work on Thursday and Friday. They are demanding better pay.
The negotiations between the unions and the employers, about a new collective bargaining agreement, have been difficult for a long time. FNV has now decided to go on strike.
Peter Reniers, director of FNV Metaal has expressed his unhappiness with the attitude of the tech companies. “The employees feel that they are not taken seriously at all. Employers do not offer a normal salary, don’t want to make good agreements about flex workers or about employees reaching the state pension age (AOW) in a nice way.”
Talks on a new collective bargaining agreement have been ongoing since last September. But the gap between what employees want to get and what employers want to offer is significant. According to Reniers, they are about a wage increase, of 1.1 percent per year, too little according to the unionist.
Reduction of purchasing power
“That wage increase reduces purchasing power. We want a wage increase that does justice to the enormous efforts of workers in this sector,” Reniers said. “Many companies are running good, there’s a lot of overtime. In some companies, things are very bad, due to the corona crisis. There, we have proposed to make agreements on how to deal with the wage increase.” Earlier, it was announced that DAF is back almost to the production level of before the corona crisis.
Flex workers
The union also wants better working conditions for flex workers. The FNV wants equal wages for the same work, regardless of whether someone has a permanent or flexible contract. In addition, the union wants that after a year, a flexible contract worker should be made permanent.
The strikes at ASML and DAF are not isolated. There are also strikes at other places in the country. About 160,000 employees are covered by the Metalelektro-CAO. The union will make sure that the 48-hour strike will be corona proof.
ASML response
The call to strike is of little concern to ASML, says a spokesperson for the tech giant. “The number of employees at ASML who are members of the union is relatively low. About 15 to 50 employees participated in the previous strike in 2018. What we also hear is that people who want to strike are also doing so in solidarity with their colleagues in the sector,” the spokesperson said.
DAF shall come up with a response later.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translation: Chaitali Sengupta, who also gives online INBURGERING classes.
