Central Committee of the NCPN
Management has let the situation escalate into a strike because the interests of the shareholders for them take precedence over the interests of the staff and the travelling public.
The NCPN and CJB are in solidarity with the action of the NS workers to enforce better working conditions and service.
The action shows the strength of the trade union movement when the need for better working conditions and terms of employment of its members are translated into concrete demands and plans for action. The massive response of the staff to the action shows this and is a warning to management and politicians that their austerity policy will no longer be tolerated! It is an encouragement to workers in other industries to tackle similar policies.
The strike demands concern matters that apply to workers all over the Netherlands! These demands do not only concern a dignified existence for workers: sufficient pay through automatic price compensation, reduction of work pressure through adapted rosters and times, being able to stop working in time with a decent pension after a working life, equal pay for equal work so no lower wages for young people. But the demands also concern the quality of public services. Just like in education and care, normal working conditions are a condition for good service!
In this solidarity declaration we therefore call on all travellers and travellers’ organisations to also declare their solidarity with the strike and its demands. The strike’s relay approach demonstrates the activists’ desire to affect passengers as little as possible and places the responsibility fully on the NS management. The fact that this management is again calling for a strike shows that they have long since ceased to have the public interest at heart and, like all management, are only interested in shareholder profits.
The NCPN is fighting for a socialist society where the workers have the power and where the influence of big business is eliminated forever. A society where public services, such as public transport, are expanded rather than dismantled; a society which has a better answer to climate change than unaffordable parking charges and fewer trains and buses; a society in which the efforts and commitment of the workers are freed from competition and one-sided economic corporate interests, and they can put the public interest first; and a society based on the unity and self-respect of the working class.