Butchers are putting down their cleavers: wages must go up
It could well be that in the coming weeks you’ll be forced to eat veggie burgers or falafel balls, because a strike by butchers threatens to cause a meat shortage in Dutch supermarkets. The butchers think the pay increase in their new collective labour agreement is utterly ridiculous. And that while butcher shops and supermarkets have never performed better, says the union spokesperson.
Thanks to coronavirus, we’ve had two miserable years behind us, but supermarket figures have never been better. This also affects the figures of so-called butcher factories, where supermarkets buy their meat. It’s extra galling that the wages of the people who work there will rise by just 2.7% if the new collective labour agreement is accepted. That is barely enough to offset inflation.
No leave
Many butchers have worked especially hard over the past two years, taken no leave and not asked for a pay rise, says John Klijn of the FNV trade union. ‘Because of coronavirus, people working in the butchery sector have already taken their employers into account a great deal. In the last two collective labour agreements, they deliberately did not ask for too much.’
Veggie food at Pentecost
The trade union has issued the industry association an ultimatum. If they cannot reach an agreement, we could well see empty refrigerators in the supermarket’s meat section at Pentecost, Klijn warns. ‘The willingness to take action has never been greater.’
Image: Albert Heijn
