Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging

FNV

Full name	Dutch Federation of Trade Unions
Native name	Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging
Founded	1976
Members	26
Affiliation	ITUC, ETUC
Key people	Wim Kok
Country	Netherlands
Website	www.fnv.nl

The Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (English: Dutch Federation of Trade Unions; FNV) is a federation of trade unions of the Netherlands.

History

The FNV was founded in 1976 as a federation of two unions, the Catholic NKV and the social-democratic NVV. The Protestant CNV originally also participated in the talks, but it refused to fully merge into a new union. The federation was founded because of declining membership, due to depillarization and increasing political polarization between left and right. The two fused officially in 1982. Wim Kok, who had already been chair of NVV between 1973 and 1976 became chair of the new organization, which he remained until 1986 when entered parliament for the PvdA.

The FNV was crucial in the economic recovery in the Netherlands during the 1980s. It supported the so-called Accords of Wassenaar, where employee accepted lower wages in trade for more employment. During the 1990s the FNV came into a heavy conflict over reforms the WAO, the disabled act, with the cabinet Lubbers-III, in which the party's former chair, Kok, was vice-prime minister. The proposals were consequently dropped.

In the 2000s the FNV came into conflict with the Second Balkenende cabinet over the AOW, the old aged act, and the WAO, the disabilities act. A huge protest was organized in Amsterdam in 2004. The FNV became a leading member in "Keer het Tij" (Turn the Tide) an alliance of social organizations that opposed the cabinet and became involved in organizing the Dutch Social Forum, the Dutch branch of the World Social Forum in 2004 and 2006.

Ideology

Although the FNV started out as a neutral union, it has a strong social-democratic orientation and strong links with the social-democratic PvdA. It is critical of both government and employers, but is also heavily incorporated in the Dutch pillarist (corporatist) system. Compared to the CNV, the other major trade union centre, the FNV is more leftwing and has more often used strikes, although the use of these actions is rare in the Netherlands in comparison to other European countries.

Although the FNV is formally independent of other organizations there are strong ideological and personal links with the social-democratic PvdA in what is known as the pillarization. Former FNV chair Wim Kok served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, between 1994 and 2002. Politicians from other Dutch parties also have their background in FNV, former leader of the Dutch GreenLeft Paul Rosenmöller was one of the leaders of the FNV in the Rotterdam harbours.

Activities

The most important function of FNV are the collective bargaining negogiations, on wages and secondary working conditions, it holds with the employers' federations. It also advises government through the Social Economic Council in which other trade unions, employers' organizations and government appointed experts also have seats.

Organization

FNV consists out of seventeen affiliate unions, with a total of 1.1 million members, out of a total of 1.9 million people who are member of a trade union. The highest organ of the FNV is the federation congress, which meets every four years. It consists out of members of all affiliate unions, represented proportionally. It elects a federation board with four members, a chair, a vice-chair, a secretary and a treasurer. The current chair is Ton Heerts. A federation council is formed by the board members, and the chairs of the fourteen affiliated unions. It takes decisions over FNV policy.

External links

• FNV trade union central site