Dutch unions react to government attacks
NETHERLANDS The FNV (Federatie Nederlandse Vakvereniginigen), the biggest federation with over one million members, has traditionally had close links with the PvdA. The Christian federation, the CNV (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond), organizes over 300,000 people and has close links with the other government party, the CDA. The third federation, the MHP (Middelbaar
PREPARATIONS for what will probably become the biggest social struggle in the Netherlands for almost ten years are well under way. On September 17, strikes of two hours or more will take place throughout the country in both the public and private sector. The following weeks will see one-day lightning strikes each day in other plants and offices. New national days of action are scheduled for
September 26 and October 7, and a national demonstration will be held in The Hague on October 5.
These are the culminating points in the first phase of a major campaign by a united front of the three main Dutch trade union federations, which has already provoked a crisis in the social democratic party, the PvdA (Partij van de Arbeid), one of the two parties in the coalition government.!
ROBERT WENT
HE whole campaign is a reply to
T new attacks by the government on social security rights:
• Social security benefits for disabled workers (WAO), which are now related to the income level before becoming unfit to work, will be drastically reduced. More than 800,000 people have a
WAO-benefit. This is a direct consequence of the high productivity level of the Dutch economy — the second highest in the world. All those who cannot keep up with the work rhythms are pushed onto the WAO. If the government plans go through, at least 240,000 people will lose a part of their gross income, from 10 or
100 up to 2,000 guilders a month.3
New workers entering the WAO after
July 1992 will only receive benefits temporarily, related to their previous income, depending on how long they have worked before becoming unfit to work. After that they will receive only the minimum social benefits, which, according to the calculations of the churches among others, is in fact below the poverty line.
• The other target of the action campaign is a government proposal to punish workers for getting ill. Every time a worker gets ill she will lose a day or two of their holidays, and many workers will get only 70% (now in most cases 100% of their income during the first days of illness.
These plans, launched during the summer holidays, were met by a storm protest from the trade unions, organizations of disabled people and from parts of the PvdA. But the government went on to launch another attack, which has led to new protests and which will further strengthen the action campaign; this proposal also breaks the link between wages and social security benefits.
For a whole period there was a direct relation between income gains in the market and public sector and social security benefits. If wage negotiations led to an average rise of 4%, then social security benefits also rose by 4%. This link was broken in the 1980s, goverments finding it too expensive especially after the dramatic rise in unemployment. establishment of this linkage as one of the few gains of its participation in the coalition government. However, after a fight between the CDA and PvdA that almost led to the fall of the government, the social democrats gave way to their coalition partner so that the government decided on, and defended in parliament, the breaking of the link.
Widening of income gap
Officially this has had no consequences for people living on social security this year, because tax measures have been taken to counteract the financial effects. But, especially now that inflation is on the rise again, it will mean a widening of the income gap between working people and those on social security.
Immediately after the announcement of the goverment's plans, a united front of the three main trade union federations was formed in order to resist the attack.
Fund Hoger Personeel), which organizes 180,000 better paid higher and middle cadres, is participating for the first time in a campaign of action. The three unions together have printed 5.5 million informational newspapers which are be distributed door-to-door throughout the country.
Action planned for queen's
The first big day of action is planned for
September 17, when the government will present its budget plans for 1992 and the queen reads her traditional speech, written by the prime minister, from the throne. The unions have called on workers to get together during the queen's speech to listen to the presentation of the government's plans. Large-screen videos will be installed and demonstrations organized in many towns. Public workers in
Amsterdam and dockers in Rotterdam have already decided on a 24-hour strike, stating that a 2-hour strike is insufficient. This has led to tensions between the trade unions, since the CNV and MHP already have a problem with the 2-hour strike and are not in favour of longer strikes in this stage of the campaign. In the days following September 17, new strikes and actions Will be organized, culminating in a big demonstration in The Hague on October 5, the Saturday before parliament debates and votes on the government's budget proposals. Actions will continue during the week of the parliamentary proceed-
What will happen if and when parliament votes through the proposals (probably on October 11) is not clear. The 1. The PvdA of former trade union leader Wim Kok formed a coalition goverment with the Christian Democrat CDA (Christen Democratisch Appel), led by Ruud Lubbers, after the elections of September 1989. The CDA is the biggest party in parliament, with four seats more (53) than the PvdA (49). The government is headed by Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, who previously led two govemments of the Christian Democrats in alliance with the right-wing liberals of the VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Demokratie). Wim Kok, ex-chairman of the one million strong trade union federation FNV, is minister of finances and deputy prime minister. 2. WAO (Wet op de Arbeidsongesschiktheid) is the name of the benefit a worker receives when he or she is no longer capable of work. Special doctors decide how disabled you are. If you are adjudged "40% disabled" you get 40% WAO and are supposed to work for the other 60%. A person will also get unemployment benefit for the 60% if they are unemployed. Not surprisingly employers are not keen on hiring workers for less than 100% time and it is difficult to find a job if you are in WAO. 3. $1 = 2 Dutch guiders (approx).
----- photo credits and running heads -----
9
First day of action big success
THE THREE trade union federations organizing the campaign against the cuts in social security annonced by the Dutch government estimate that more than 600,000 workers went on strike during part of the day on September 17, to
International Viewpoint #213 • September 30, 1991
NETHERLANDS
All this of course was only a reaction to the plans launched in the summer. In general, PvdA members and voters are very unhappy with the performance of "their" government. The PvdA lost many votes in the two elections (regional and municipal)
listen to the queen's speech in canteens, classrooms and halls. Trade union leaders call this figure "historical" for the Dutch workers' movement, although it is less than the one million they predicted a week ago.
An estimated 100,000 people attended the central meetings organized by the unions; 30,000 in Rotterdam; 20,000 in Amsterdam; 10,000 in Groningen;
6,500 in Emmen; 1,200 in Schiphol in what was the first successful common trade union action ever at this airport. There was a 24 hour dock strike at
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Vlissingen. Throughout the day there were no trams and buses running in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and public transport in the rest of the country was hit by a strike during part of the day. The only place where the strike was a failure was in rail, where only a few workers went on strike, with the direct consequence that the original plans for train strikes on
September 26 and October 7 will be rediscussed by the FNV union which had called for them. Intimidation by the employer, divisions between the main unions - only one of them called for a strike, the two others refusing to do so
-and the after effects of recent rail strikes for safer work seem to have played an important role here.
Trade union leaders annonced that lightning strikes will be organized from now on, among others on Friday September 27, the day before a special PvdA congress will probably decide to put its trust in Wim Kok and to support the cuts proposed by the government. The demonstration in the Hague on October 5 will be very big; all trade union members will get a free ticket in their mail to participate in this demonstration.
Meanwhile the atmosphere in the PvdA is changing. With many angry members having left or spoken out once in a meeting, congress delegations have to be elected, and more and more branch leaderships have decided to accept
Wim Kok and his plans, to avoid a governmental crisis followed by an electoral defeat for the PvdA. The trade union leaderships, who had staked everything on rejection of the proposed cuts by the PvdA congress, are now without a strategy. Already some are beginning to say that a final vote by parliament has to be accepted "in our democracy" and will mean the end of the coordinated national campaign -this will then be replaced by much more complicated efforts to gain back what has been taken by the government in the usua contract negotiations. - Robert Went. * unions say they will try to get everything the government is about to steal back again, through the normal contract negotiations at the end of the year. But that is obviously not very simple; it is already impossible to do that for important sectors with a two-year contract; and it will be almost impossible for the public sector unions, who will be confronting the goverment in the contract negotiations. But, importantly, such an approach more would break up the united campaign into a series of fragmented battles by sector or even workplace.
Union leaders lack plan
It is already clear that the trade union leaderships have no plan to continue the fight after the parliamentary decision.
such a decision will
Strikes against almost certainly be ruled illegal by a judge, and the unions will not be prepared to challenge this with a stepped up fight.
The problems looming for this later stage however do not hinder the development of a big campaign at present. An effort can be made to develop links between workers from various sectors and prepare contingency plans should the unions leaderships retreat or accept a compromise.
10
The main political victim of the government plans is the PvdA. The initial launch of the plans led to an proar in the party. Branch leaderships, chairs of districts and members of local elected authorities adopted motions condemning the new government plans and demanding that they be withdrawn. Party chair Marjanne Sint was on holiday and did not bother to produce an official party reaction. Party leader Wim Kok stated that the plans were "defendable" and himself went off on holiday. However, by the time they got back it was already impossible to stop the fast-spreading fire in the party. Within three weeks more than 500 members had resigned, bringing the total of resignations since the PvdA joined the government to more than 12,000 - one in eight of the former party membership
Support for the PvdA in the opinion polls is lower than ever. If elections were held today, the PvdA would lose half its parliamentary seats and would slide from being the country's second to fourth party. Small groups of members formed a committee "PvdA social again" others launched "Socialists in the PvdA". Trade union leaders with PvdA membership cards have demanded an ad in the papers calling for the PvdA to withdraw its support for the government plans.
that were held since the social. democrats came into government.
Even PvdA ministers find it hard to explain the difference between this "pink" government and the previous right wing governments. Social democrats have been co-responsible, or in some cases even mainly responsible, for a big rise in house rents, price rises for public transport and petrol, measures that make education increasingly the preserve of the rich and
To stem the rebellion, the party leadership decided to organize a special congress in October, to discuss the future of the social security system. The PvdA leadership also decided that the government plans should be re-discussed and that some of the worst consequences should be tackled. Wim Kok himself presented these decisions of the PvdA leadership, to show that there is no disagreement between the PvdA ministers in the government and the rest of the party leadership. New negotiations were opened with the CDA, but as the Christian democrats refused to change essential points, only slight changes were
A new time bomb
Just before the final plans for the WAO were to be presented a new time bomb was set ticking in the government and the PvdA, again placed there by the CDA.
The government had to take a decision on the percentage rise in social security benefits for 1992. One of the handful of the remaining pet projects of the social democrats was attacked when the CDA minister of social affairs, De Vries, strongly supported by the leader of the Christian democrat's parliamentary fraction, proposed to scrap the link between wages and social security. Wim Kok said on TV that this was a step that he could
"personally, politically morally", and for three days it looked as if the government was about to fall. In the end, however, the PvdA caved in once
But at what price? An opinion poll a few days later showed that more than half of the PvdA's voters had lost confidence in
Wim Kok; meanwhile PvdA branches resumed the adoption of anti-government resolutions. Anther special meeting of the PvdA leadership came up with new initiatives to resolve the party crisis.
Chairwoman Sint stepped down and a proposal by party leader Kok to move the special party congress forward, this time to September 28, was adopted. The agenda of the congress has also been changed.
Kok states that he cannot function without the support of his party and that the con-
FMLN regroups under fire
September 30, 1991 • #213 International Viewpoint gress will have to decide whether the party still wants to give him its "trust"