Postal workers employed by TNT Post will go on strike before Christmas if management does not agree to their demands for a 1.5% pay rise and a good social plan for thousands of employees who face losing their jobs, reports NRC Handelsblad on Friday.

‘The atmosphere is explosive and people are ready to take action,’ says Peter Wiechmann of the AbvaKabo FNV trade union in the paper.
‘Christmas is coming and this is the moment to strike,the paper quotes spokesman Dirk Schuurman of the CNV affiliated union and member of the TNT Post’s workers council as saying.
Peter Bakker, head of the TNT concern, said yesterday that TNT Post’s volumes are expected to fall by 7%-9% next year. The company must make cuts to stay in profit, he said. TNT wants to lower salaries and is preparing to cut 11,000 of the 23,000 jobs by 2015.
The unions have given TNT until next week to meet their demands.
At an analysts meeting on Thursday, TNT announced that it has abandoned its ambitions to become a pan-European postal company and will instead focus on the transport of parcels and freight, reports the Financieele Dagblad. Bakker blames increasing protectionism by governments as a result of the economic crisis for the change in strategy.
The Dutch postal division will be slimmed down and will deliver post just three days a week while the company’s foreign postal activities could be sold off, the paper says.