Unions Reject Offer from Rotterdam World Gateway

Talks on terms of employment between Dutch trade unions FNV Havens and CNV Vakmensen and Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) have hit another hurdle.

The dialogue broke off as the unions insisted on enforcement of a collective agreement for every RWG employee, RWG said in an update.

“RWG did not rule out discussion about an operational collective agreement beforehand but unfortunately, the unions decided to reject our offer of dialogue because they insisted that RWG enforces a collective agreement for every RWG employee. It is disappointing that the unions have adopted this position,” RWG said.

“RWG is ‘pro-choice’ when it comes to union membership and collective agreements for its employees. All RWG employees are free to be members of any union if they wish, but RWG will not enforce any collective agreement upon its employees without their express desire and consent. To date there has been no such request from RWG employees.”

The company explained that it has assigned all operational work, based on long-term contracts, to companies who have existing collective agreements for dockers.

RWG voiced their readiness to resume talks with the unions in order to reach an agreement beneficiary to both sides.