Amsterdam- About sixty employees of Maastricht coffeeshops have collectively reported at the UWV this morning in Maastricht to get attention to the fact that they will be redundant as of May 1st, along with 300 other Maastricht colleagues. The resignation wave in the coffeeshop industry is the result of the introduction of the weed pass that Minister of Security and Justice Opstelten implements from May 1st, officially to reduce the nuisance of drug tourism from abroad.

National action group controlled from Maastricht

The thirty employees have joined the Foundation Advocacy CoffeeShop Staff The Netherlands. This is a national activist group that is controlled from Maastricht.

About 200 Maastricht coffee shop employees have been registered as of now, Jo Smeets says, one of the initiators.

At the UWV, they reacted shocked

According to Smeets, employed at coffee shop Fantasia at the Sint Annalaan in Maastricht, they responded shocked at the UWV this morning when at ten o'clock suddenly such a large group was standing in the hall of the benefits agency. , But we were kindly addressed by the bureau manager Will Prickaerts of the UWV Maastricht. He assured us that we will not be without money and that he will do anything to help us. Soon, a separate briefing will be organized for us.'

Mayor Hoes has no appetite for a conversation

Smeets has tried to get a conversation with successively alderman André Willems (Senior Party Maastricht) and mayor Onno Hoes in recent days. The alderman directed him to the mayor during a personal meeting at the SP meeting last Monday. But he does not feel anything for a conversation either, according to the text of a chat session via Facebook which Maastricht.dichtbij has.

On the question of Smeets whether Hoes would like to converse with his foundation, the mayor replied that he did not want to. “I would not know why I should, in any case, my position as mayor is clear and I will soon come with additional measures to maintain public order in Maastricht even better,” according to Hoes in the private chat session.

Jo Smeets, to the mayor: “What do you mean? I do not know why I should? Do you mean you do not see why you would want to sit down with us or........ “

Mayor Hoes: “Right.”

Smeets: 'It is about 360 work places in Maastricht, I think that you as the mayor of Maastricht could mean a bit more for that.'

Mayor Hoes: 'I am stopping now as Facebook is not the medium to go into depth about this.'

'Position mayor downright antisocial'

“Downright antisocial“, Smeets calls the position of the mayor. “This dismissal concerns 360 citizens of his city. All ordinary people who do not know what is on their way. You should handle it in a more respectful way.“

Smeets is working on it day and night, he says. “After Maastricht.dichtbij.nl started writing about it, the ball started rolling. We have now been in all Dutch newspapers and also from Belgium, there is plenty of interest. Even CNN has already reported.“