Great victory for Amsterdam Airport cleaners !

Publicado: 15 Abril 2009
Google translate: 

 After months of struggle and many colourful demonstrations, cleaners organising with FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands have won all of their demands from employers.



Workers will have travel expenses paid from home to the airport, increased job security and a bonus of 0.5% of their salary paid on 1 July. The airport has also agreed to improve amenities for workers including provision of a lunch room and trade union facilities.



This victory follows 3 months of actions, 4 strike days and many instances of intimidation, including lawsuits. Cleaning companies and the airport brought legal action against the cleaners and their union for taking strike action. The bosses estimated that this aciton cost the airport €100,000 per day, not counting indirect costs of damage to their reputation. The court upehld the cleaners' right to strike and refused to ban the action.



Dutch cleaner Judy Lock encourages workers to take action to stand up for their rights: “Stop thinking that merely being a member of the union is enough. No way: organise a majority of your co-workers and agitate! Then the agreement will follow sooner or later. I’m really glad!”



For more information about the actions, see the links below:



http://www.nieuwsuitamsterdam.nl/en/2009/04/court-again-rules-favour-striking-cleaners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmrINrHMhcYhttp://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Netherlands&langcode=en