Customs officers at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport are on a 24 hour strike until midnight on Thursday night in support of a 2.5% pay rise for civil servants.

According to ANP reports, passengers’ passports and hand luggage will still be checked by the military police who remain on duty. Security at the airport is not affected by the industrial action, a spokesman for the military police told ANP. ‘Ensuring public order and security at Schiphol is the job of the military police and not customs officers,’ said Rob Stenacker.
The so-called 100% drugs control on passengers from high risk countries such as Suriname, the Antilles, Aruba and Venezuela will also continue, Stenacker said.
However this is disputed by the Abvakabo trade union representative Jan Willem Dieten, who said that 90% of the staff who carry out these checks are on strike.
The Schiphol strike is part of a long running dispute over a new collective labour agreement for civil servants. Prison officers have also begun rotating 12-hour strikes at 20 prisons nationwide.