Trade unions in the Netherlands lost 101 thousand members over the past two years, the fourth largest fall since the start of this measurement in 1901. Union membership is now at its lowest level since 1988, Statistics Netherlands reports.
At the end of March this year, 1.6 million people were members of a trade union, a 6 percent decrease compared to 2017. Both male and female membership decreased by around 6 percent, to 984 thousand male members and 618 thousand female members.
Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs and Employment reached an agreement in principle on a new pension system with employers and employees. On Wednesday, the trade unions and other involved parties will present this agreement to their members to vote on it, NU.nl reports.
The municipality of Maastricht hired a detective agency to read the emails of three critical officials and question them. This happened after the leak of a report on a meeting about a joint service office for Maastricht, Heerlen and Sittard-Geleen. The report referred to the possible dismissal of the critical officials, AD reports.
Schiphol will try to stop a security guard strike at the airport next week Tuesday in court "We want to do everything possible to ensure that passengers do not suffer", a spokesperson for the airport said to RTL Nieuws.
Security guards plan to strike for 24 hours on Tuesday, September 4th. The strike would affect some 200 thousand travelers. "Everyone who flies has to go through the security check. If that is not possible, you can't fly", the Schiphol spokesperson said.
Dutch trade unions and employers reached an agreement on a new pension system, according to a draft document the Telegraaf managed to get hold of. One of the main points is slowing down the increase of retirement age, according to the newspaper.
The trade unions and employers agreed that the increase of retirement age to 67 years must be introduced more slowly. In this draft agreement, retirement age will be 67 years in 2025, instead of in 2021. The parties also want to calculate the increase differently in the future and for more early retirement schemes to be made possible.
Trade unions want an independent investigation into statements made by Amsterdam Fire Department Commander Leen Schaap. They accuse Schaap of dereliction of duty due to criticism he made about the corps in the media, Het Parool reports.
The ground staff of Dutch airline KLM is striking on Thursday, union FNV announced. Between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. participating staff members will not load any cargo onto airplanes, only unload
Many employers want to get rid of arrangements that ensure their employees have a healthy and safe work environment, says trade union FNV. According to the union, numerous sectors have problems with too heavy workloads, but employers thwart attempts to rectify this
31 percent of teachers are being bullied. Mostly by students, but parents, colleagues and the school board also participate in bullying.
Since 2003, the number of male educators in primary school has declined from 22.8 percent to 15.5 percent in 2012. The union for education-sector employers, CNV Onderwijs, finds this a disturbing set of figures, and is going to propose improvements.
Cleaners have been on strike for two weeks, after several smaller actions before that. Employers' organization for cleaning companies, OSB, has invited trade unions for negotiations "to get out of the impasse." The main effect of the strike has been dirty trains.
The Cabinet has been approved the health care reform plan that will see a lot more care tasks be transfered over to the municipalities instead of the government per 1 January 2015.
The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis(CPB) has been accused of issuing propagandistic information before election time.
