On the first day of strike of garbage collectors from the meanest Amsterdam, the waste piles up. In the city center in particular, there are numerous garbage bags on the street.
Employees of three departments of the municipality, including Waste & Raw Materials, will stop working until Sunday. They demand a 12 percent wage increase and automatic compensation for inflation in next year’s collective agreement.
FNV director Fred Bos says that about five hundred people are participating in the strike. That is half the number of people who were called up for the strike: “I myself thought there would be a little more, but we hear that there are many freelance employees within the municipality who do not dare to do it,” he says. The number of strike participants is enough for the FNV “to continue for a while.”
Substantial consequences
Alderman Hester van Buren says that the strike will have “considerable consequences” and calls on residents to keep the city livable and to keep waste indoors or in their own containers as much as possible.
The municipality of Amstelveen warns Amsterdammers on Facebook not to take their waste to the waste station there. People must prove that they live in Amstelveen until the end of the strike in Amsterdam. In Diemen, too, visitors to the waste point must demonstrate that they are residents.
Residents of Amstelveen are still afraid of nuisance from Amsterdammers: “Then they will ask for an ID from a family member in the municipality of Amstelveen. Or they will pee in the woods,” responds a resident at NH Nieuws/AT5.
No receipts
Employees of supervision and enforcement are also participating in the strike. They do not issue tickets to offenders, but may take action in the event of serious disturbances or extreme behaviour.
At the beginning of this month, garbage collectors from the municipality of Utrecht went on strike. After the strike it took another week for all the accumulated dirt to be removed.
Garbage collectors will strike in various municipalities in Limburg from Wednesday. FNV actually wanted to strike from today, but because of carnival, the municipalities did not think that was a good idea, 1Limburg reported earlier.
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- Garbage collectors in Utrecht after a week on strike again
