THE HAGUE, 24/11/09 - Threats of strikes and demonstrations no longer appear to be a real negotiating instrument for the trade union movement. This was painfully confirmed Saturday by the extremely low turnout for the 'big' national demonstration against the raising of the state pension (AOW) age.
An estimated 5,000 people assembled in the centre of Rotterdam, where the union movement demonstrated against the cabinet's plan to raise the AOW age to 66 and 67 in 2020 and 2025 respectively. In fact, demonstrations in the Netherlands are normally not very popular, but where the organisation was only counting on 20,000 participants, even this turned out to be much too optimistic.
"In other countries, a big incision like now into the AOW would lead to big strikes and it could be easily be the case that trains would not run for a long time. But there is no question of that here," confirmed political scientist Roeland Audenaerde. He received his doctorate from Leiden University last week for a study of the Dutch 'polder model'.
In the polder model, the doctrine has been that unions, employers and politicians make compromises in negotiations among themselves before announcing any reforms. The disadvantage is that the agreements are often colourless but the advantage is the labour peace that unions provide in exchange for influence.
If politicians and companies however know that unions can no longer mobilise their members anyway, the unions will lose their most important instrument of pressure. The present coalition has so far been willing to give the union's their usual say anyway. But more reform-minded future governments may think differently.
Audenaerde does not believe however that future cabinets can from now on sideline the FNV and CNV union federations. According to the political scientist, the polder model is still strongly anchored in Dutch society. "It will certainly not be thrown overboard from one day to the next." Still, he does signal "a trend towards slightly more polarisation."
According to Audenaerde, there has been a shift in the last few years "from the Rhineland model to the Anglo-Saxon model". This means that the accent among companies lies more on the interests of shareholders and less account is taken of others that have a stake in the welfare of the companies, including the employees.
For young people, unlike older employees, it is no longer automatic to become a member of a union. In Rotterdam, scarcely any people aged below 50 were present. This is ironic, as the pensionable age is only being raised for relatively younger people - everyone currently younger than 55.
As well, the socialist union rhetoric appears to be out of favour at a time in which conservative ideologies are en vogue. The unions do not seem to go along with this trend. For example, FNV chairwoman Agnes Jongerius deplored in her speech that Labour (PvdA) leader Wouter Bos "has shed his red coat."
