National 24-hour public transport strike begins

A 24-hour strike has brought most public transport in the Netherlands to a halt, with no trains and buses, trams or metros stopping in any main city. Only rides to and from Schiphol airport are still running.

The FNV union organised the strike in protest at the cabinet’s planned cuts to social security, which it says will hit unemployment and disability benefits that transport workers are more likely than most to need.

NS is running no regular trains for the whole day. The only exception is the airport sprinter between Amsterdam Centraal, Schiphol and Hoofddorp, which runs four times an hour.

It is the first nationwide 24-hour public transport strike since May 2019, when unions walked out over the state pension age.

International services, including the Eurostar, ICE and Eurocity, are also not running within the Netherlands, and the regional trains to Antwerp and Aachen are cancelled.

In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague there are no buses, trams or metros, and Rotterdam’s metro stations are closed. The ferries across the IJ behind Amsterdam Centraal are not sailing either.

Regional bus companies such as Arriva, Qbuzz and Connexxion are running a reduced service depending on how many drivers turn up for work.

Why the unions are striking
The strike is the latest in a series of actions against the cabinet’s plans to save €6.5 billion by cutting social security benefits over its four-year term, first set out in the coalition agreement between D66, VVD and CDA.

The original package included raising the state pension (AOW) age faster, halving unemployment benefit (WW) from two years to one and cutting disability benefits (WIA). The cabinet dropped the pension plan in April after it became clear it had no majority in either house of parliament.

Under the budget deal reached by the coalition parties on August 31, the cabinet has since scrapped most of the remaining cuts in an effort to win opposition support for its budget plan on September 15. The cuts to AOW are off the table and the halving of the WW has been postponed, according to details leaked to RTL Nieuws.

FNV said that is not enough, and that around 70% of the planned cuts still stand and the WW will still be halved and WIA payments still reduced, only later than planned. It wants the entire package withdrawn.

“It is unacceptable that the minority cabinet is cutting so much on social security,” FNV rail official Henri Janssen told NOS on Wednesday morning.

Janssen said he understood travellers’ frustration, but that they should direct their anger at the cabinet rather than the strikers. He did not rule out “tougher action”, including a wider strike beyond public transport, if the cuts are not dropped.