Holland's combination of labour market flexibilisation and wage restraint with only gradual cuts in the social security system is increasingly presented as a model for the rest of Europe. But, as John Cohzijn reports, more and more people in Holland are criticising the "Polder" (dike) Model
The Dutch trade unions were very supportive about the recent EU employment summit in Luxembourg, and criticised the European Trade Union Congress (ETUC) for organising a demonstration there.
Since 1982 the Dutch trade unions have supported wage restraint. The TU leadership "co-thinks" with the bosses about restructuring companies and the economy. Union leaders repeat to their people from a population of 15 million are living under the poverty-line. Education and health care are becoming less and less accessible.
A number of petitions and other initiatives are seeking to mobilise people against these developments. Since Holland's fake success in reducing unemployment is presented as a model across the European Union, this is particularly important for the development of an international critical movement against the European project of the bosses. Outspoken fans of the Polder Model include British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French trade union leader Nicole Notat.
Although the line of the trade union leadership is terrible, some thing are changing. The trade union council of the members that bigger profits will lead to ABVAKABO (civil-servants union) supcient high-quality childcare centres, so that leisure time no longer reinforces the proof of their good sense, they point to though the daily leadership was against. gender division of labour in the home, is an indispensable addition to this demand.
In practice, most agreements between French employers and unions concerning the length of the workday have had more to do with its reorganisation than its reduction. The result has only benetited the emplover: annualisation of working hours, flexibility, part-time work, lower pay, and fewer employer contributions to social insurance. The strategy towards women, sometimes carried out by unions themselves, is obviously to encourage them to take part-time work, a "choice" that is anything but that, for all of the reasons discussed. Nothing less than the social status of women is at stake.^ * Notes "Women's work in the shadow of unemployment", in Actes de la Recherche en sciences sociales #115, December 1996. 2 Cahiers du feminisme #77 (1996) 3. DARES Study (Direction de l'animation, de la recherche, des etudes et des statistiques) of December 1995 on the job situation in 84 employment categories. 4. Cahiers du feminisme #71/72 (1995)
new investments and more jobs. As the official unemployment figures of 5.3%, much lower than the EU average.
But even De Volkskrant, the newspaper closest to the ruling Labour Party (PvdA), admits that many groups of jobless people are not counted in this statistic According to the OECD (the 24 most industrialised countries) real unemployment [including chronic underemployment] in Holland is around 20%. Most new jobs are part-time. Over the last 10 years part time workers have increased from 22% to 37% of the total workforce
Spain has the highest unemployment in the EU, with 20% out of work according to official figures, But Holland is the champion of temporary work. Super-flexible contracts that will enable employers to cut their workforce immediately as soon as there are signs of a new recession.
The problems with poverty and social exclusion are becoming clear for more and more people. Around one million ported the Luxemburg demonstration,
There is also a small but important group of TU-activists that want to build a Euro-critical platform inside the unions. The Dutch network which supports the European Marches against Unemployment is active in these initiatives, as well as the successful platform of economists opposed to European Monetary Union, a progressive Dutch initiative which has sparked similar movements among intellectuals in other EU countries.
While building a broad coalition against poverty in Holland, EuroMarch activists will try to link poverty-problems with the fight against European unification. Next time there is an all-European demonstration against unemployment, a Dutch delegation will be there, with or without the leaders of "their" trade unions!* This article first appeared on the EuroMarch listserver. It may also appear in Spectre Magazine.
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