About 4,000 union members gathered for a fair solution to the “income crisis”

About 4,000 members of the labor union Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV) gathered on Saturday in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. There they protested against "the income crisis" in the Netherlands for a "just society and fair solutions" to the financial problems facing residents of the Netherlands.

Speakers from various sectors attended the gathering, and FNV chairman Tuur Elzinga closed the event with the union's commitment for the coming year. Elzinga spoke of a dichotomy in society that is only getting bigger due to inflation.

"Companies increase their prices, their turnover, and, if possible, their profits. But not wages,” he said.

The FNV chairman is annoyed that top executives are receiving bonuses and pay raises in addition to their already "extremely generous remuneration".

Elzinga said, "But the purchasing power of the people who have earned the profits through hard work together is not there." He said the situation feels particularly antisocial.

According to Elzinga, the solutions put forward by the union are "simple, realistic, and feasible". For example, the union wants wages to rise in line with prices and inflation automatically in the future. This is already happening in some European countries, including Belgium, according to the union chairman.

In the Netherlands, the union has also agreed on so-called automatic price compensation in several collective agreements. In addition, the minimum wage must still be raised for everyone from the age of 18, increasing to 14 euros per hour.

But to achieve those goals, public support is needed. That is why Elzinga called on those present to ask three people to become union members next week. "Only then will we grow fast enough to ensure profit. From workplace to workplace, from collective labor agreement to collective labor agreement, from region to region."

The union has recently organized several strikes to enforce better working conditions. On Friday, retail group De Bijenkorf employees stopped working for a better wage for the approximately 2,400 employees.

The union also wanted to go on strike at PostNL, but it decided not to do so when the judge ruled that a strike was only allowed as long as essential mail continued to be delivered.