Cat....Strike in Holland?

[LHR02]

Hey Cat...this is making news here in US.....is it really such a big deal there? Agree with the article that the Dutch always seem so 'mellow' that this is a surprise.

www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=541372.html

ging

[Cat]

Yeah, the gouvernement has really stabbed into the heart of what we have believed and invested in for many years.

As the article says, the Netherlands are famous for their social system. Any inhabitant of the Netherlands will not have to go hungry or not have acces to health care. The gouvernement will provide and the rich contribute more then the poor.

The last few years this system is becoming too expensive and cutbacks have been made already. Now, with the start of a new parlement year, cutbacks have been made on the amount of time people have to work before retirement: people who are in their 50's probably will have to work untill they're 65. untill recently they could retire at about 58 (depending on their job). The article specifically mentiones the people in 'hazardous' jobs, as fire fighters or ambulance drivers. They usually retire at 55, but now face another 5 to 10 years of work. Meantime they have paid their taxes to recieve a pension at 55, or made additional arrangements to add money to their pension, so naturally they feel robbed.

Another huge problem is healthcare. I work in the healthcare secor myself and there have been huge and unexpected cutbacks this year. Some institutions are on the virge of bankrupcy (sp??). I work for a few nursing homes and things aren't easy for us as well. I suspect that there will be collegues who will lose their job. I suspect I'm not one of them, but is still is a possibility.

Our health insurance model will change as well. Untill a few years ago there were lots of things payd for by the gouvernement. With the economy going bad and more people requesting health care, things have been modified. Basic healthcare is ensured, but we'll have to pay extra for medicines and dental care, for instance. For the less privileged this is hard to take (and hard to pay).
But I think it's the consequece of years of spending lots of the governements money (partly payed though our taxes) on health care, without proper attention for efficiency.

Yesterday a lot of people have gone to Amsterdam to protest. Union members got a free train ticket. The article you mentioned stated that they expected about 100.000 people. From what I've heard it has been about 200.000, maybe more. The fact that is was on a Saturday helped a lot, I think. Although lost of people are mad, not everyone would have missed a days work for it. We still are dutch.

I did like the descition of our prime minister as a symbol for the dutch situation. The poor man has been in hospital for almost a month now with a severe foot infection. Now he's on the mend and hopes to have a skingraft implanted next week, so he can return to work. He's got lots to do ofcourse.

The whole situation has put a strain on the political situation as well. About two years ago we had elections. The socialist and democates had almost the same amount of seats in parliament. The democrates made a better deal with other parties and gained the majority. Still, the socialists have quite a number of members in parliament and they naturally are not too happy with this situation.

We'll see how it all turns out.

Cat

[Cat]

The saga continues....

Although the gouvernement dropped a few of their plans, tomorrow there will be a nation-wide public transportation strike.
Trains, buses and other public transportation will not be operational. There is supposed to have been a run on rental cars, but the majority of people who use public transportation are staying home tomorrow.

It's the first time in 15 years there has been such a massive strike.
Luckely I only live 5 miles from my workplace, and can avoid the traffic jam. Some of my collegues have decided to start working at 7 o'clock tomorrow to avoid the rush hour which is going to be brutal.