News

2,500 Dutch cleaners, demanding respect on the job, took strike action in Amsterdam on January 5 and are poised to have as many workers on strike in The Hague (Den Haag) this week, if a settlement is not reached.



Strike issues for the Dutch cleaners include fighting for improved sick pay, wage increases, workload reductions, travel money and, fundamentally, respect on the job. The union waged an incredibly successful and historic 9-week strike in 2010, their last contract fight.



Khadija Tahiri-Hyati, President of the Cleaners’ Parliament, elected on October 24, 2011, said it is time that the invisibility of cleaners ends and that doing more and more work with no additional time to complete this work is unacceptable. Staffing levels have been hugely reduced; some sites that previously had 8 cleaners now have only 4 cleaners. These workloads are unacceptable and must be reduced.



Philip Jennings, UNI Global Union General Secretary, along with the staff of UNI, sent a message of solidarity to the Dutch cleaners. He cited the union’s organising strength (and their receipt of the UNI Organising Award at the UNI World Congress in November 2010) and their right to demand fair pay and decent jobs. On behalf of the 20 million workers in UNI, in 900 national unions and 150 countries, Jennings said we stand with the workers in The Netherlands, just as we stood with the cleaners in New York City who settled their contract dispute on December 30, one day before their strike deadline. Just as those cleaners got a fair settlement, Jennings called on the industry to meet similar demands by Dutch cleaners.



See Philip Jennings’ message here

See The Cleaners’ union latest video.



For more information about the strike, see the union’s website.