In April 1999, local government workers in the Netherlands launched a series of protests in support of their demands in bargaining over a new collective agreement. By the end of May, they had accepted the third offer tabled by the employers, which includes a 4.5% pay rise over 18 months.
At the end of April 1999, local government workers across a number of Dutch municipalities launched a series of protests in support of their claims in the bargaining round covering some 180,000 municipal workers (NL9904138N). On 27 April, public transport workers went out on a 24-hour strike in Rotterdam and Dordrecht. An injunction issued by the Rotterdam courts banned workers at the city's sanitation service, Roteb, from beginning strikes planned to coincide with the Queen's Day (Koninginnendag) celebrations on 30 April and on 1 May. The municipality maintained that piles of uncollected rubbish would potentially cause problems after the Dutch football finals scheduled to be played in Rotterdam at that time.
Once again, on 10 May, public transport in Dordrecht ground to a halt. On the same day, a brief work stoppage also took place in Rotterdam. Strikes spread to Utrecht the following day and on 12 May public transport services ceased in Amsterdam too. Amsterdam's emergency municipal services, including ambulances and the fire brigade, were staffed only by "skeleton shifts". In several other municipalities as well, work stoppages were held in various municipal services for longer or shorter periods.
The national employers' body and negotiator, the Association of Dutch Municipalities (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, VNG), which had initially offered a pay increase of 5% over two years, decided to add an incremental increase of 0.25 percentage points at the beginning of May. However, the unions immediately rejected this offer, and demanded an increase of 4.5% over a one-year period. A second offer of 4.5% over 18 months, though labeled "minimal" by the unions, was later submitted to the union officials.
At the end of May, the unions increased their pressure. The sanitation services of Rotterdam and Amsterdam started a one-week strike. However, on 28 May, with rubbish already piling up in the streets of both cities, an agreement was finally reached. The 18-month agreement contains a pay rise of 4.5% plus two bonuses of NLG 450 each. One will be paid in December 1999 and the other in April 2000. In 2001, the end-of-year bonus will be increased to 1% of annual salary.