Dutch postal unions are planning two more days of action later this month after some 8,000 TNTPost staff went on a one-day strike yesterday.
Postal workers marched through The Hague to the TNT Post head office where speakers addressedthe protestors. No mail was delivered in the country, but parcel services were not impacted.
Edith Snoey, president of the Abvakabo FNV union, announced there would be two further days ofprotest on November 25 and 26 to step up pressure on the company.
TNT Post staff were protesting at company plans to make some 3,100 employees redundant as partof cost-saving measures. The unions say the figure of compulsory redundancies within the overallfigure of 11,000 job losses is still too high. Most of the downsizing will be achieved throughnatural fluctuation, non-replacements, early retirement and similar measures.
TNT Post had already criticised the strike as not helping to solve the problems resulting fromthe decline in mail volumes. “If the unions do in fact engage in collective action, it will have animpact on the rapidly increasing fall in volumes due to substitution and the leakage of flows ofmail to TNT Post’s competitors. Such action will in fact increase the risk as regards jobs,precisely the jobs that the unions wish to preserve,” it stated.
The company last month offered to scale back plans for 4,500 compulsory redundancies by 1,400 to3,100. TNT Post, which expects a volume decline of 8-9% this year, aims to reduce operating costsby €430 million over the 2010-2017 period.
TNT Post CEO Harry Koorstra said: “TNT Post considers that the future of the postal company inthe Netherlands will be compromised if the proposed reorganisation plans, these being the mostrecent plans offered to the unions during the latest negotiations, are not in fact pursued. Themanagement of TNT Post considers that risk to be unacceptable.”
