The police unions are not going to call on their members to stop working during carnival. The impact on the events and the citizens is too great for that, reports project leader Maarten Brink on behalf of the ACP, ANPV, Equipe and NPB unions. Other police actions planned in the coming weeks, such as blocking the area around the Binnenhof, will continue for the time being.
The unions have been protesting for weeks because the cabinet does not want to meet their demands for the new police collective agreement. According to the unions, the actions are aimed at making it clear to the cabinet how much the health and safety of the current police employees have come under pressure due to unwise police policy.
rigorous
But the action not to deploy agents during carnival turns out to be too rigorous, the unions acknowledge. “The aim of our actions is to make it clear to politicians and citizens how urgent the capacity problems of the police are. We always ask for understanding from the citizen, but to tax them in these times during a major event such as carnival, we think that is going a bit too far,” Brink tells this site.
Due to the possible absence of agents, some events threatened to not take place, says Brink. In addition, the lack of police deployment can lead to calamities and that you have to act even more vigorously than usual. This puts police officers in a tight spot, because we don’t have that capacity at all. All in all, we’ll skip this action for now. We hope to do the catering industry and the public a favor with this.”
From bad to worse
According to Brink, the cancellation of the strike does not affect the action ‘From bad to worse’, a so-called pile-up protest with which the unions try to increase political pressure. According to the project leader, many actions are already underway that have a major impact on society, such as not actively supporting bailiffs, not performing during football matches and not issuing fines for minor violations.
“The number of fines has fallen sharply in recent weeks,” said Brink. ,,The descending line of the graph I see here before me… a ski slope would be jealous of it. So in The Hague they certainly feel something of our actions. And we will continue with that for the foreseeable future until they cross the bridge.”
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