According to an article published in the Financial Times yesterday, Unite National Officer Adrian Jones would like to see the Dutch system, which involves two huge trade unions negotiating conditions with a group of employers, come to the the UK.
Back in April, drivers belonging to the FNV and CNV trade unions went on strike in the Netherlands. Together, the two unions have 90,000 drivers as members.
The trade unions demanded, among other things, a wage increase of 3.5%, an arrangement that would allow staff with heavy workloads to retire earlier, as well as a requirement for all trucks to be equipped with air conditioning and heating that continues to run when the engines are switched off.
Just over a month later, the strike action paid dividends; a 3.5% pay rise active as of July 1st was agreed, with a further 3.25% increase to come in January 2022. On top of that, employers agreed to the aforementioned demands for air conditioning and early retirement.
Edwin Atema from the FNV told the Financial Times that the system is effective because the agreement signed between the unions and the road transport employers is legally binding:
“This collective agreement becomes law, so it gives transport suppliers the ability to say to their customers: this is law, so I can’t go cheaper than this.”
Would you like to see the Dutch system used in the UK? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Photo credit: Rab Lawrence / Flickr / CC BY 2.0