June 28 () –
Primary and secondary teachers in the Netherlands have reported this Wednesday that they plan to start a general strike on October 5 to demand an increase in wages due to inflation.
“We see that much better collective agreements are signed in all industries. With the current shortage of teachers, we are not going to tolerate the fact that there will be no correction (of wages) according to inflation,” said the member of the board of directors of the Dutch education union AOb, Thijs Roovers, according to information in the newspaper ‘Algemeen Dagblad’.
They have been joined by the National Federation of Christian Unions (CNV), the Federation of Dutch Unions (FNV), the Union of School Directors (AVS) and the Federation of Education Unions (FvOV), among others.
Dutch teachers have demanded a more significant increase in salaries due to the economic crisis. In this sense, they have requested an increase of 12 percent and not the 5 percent that the authorities had been promising. “These figures cannot be taken seriously,” said Danielle Woestenberg, of the CNV.
The unions already staged protests last May, when they threatened to call a strike at the end or beginning of the academic year. Now, they have explained that “the fact that it is in October is a concession to the children and teachers.”
