Labour unions
In the road transport sector, membership density varies across subsectors. Organisational
density in the road haulage of freight is about 36 percent, which is still above the national
average of 28 percent. In public transport however, organisational density lies between 60
and 70 percent, due to the history of the companies as former state-owned companies.
Employees in the taxi sector and private bus transport on the contrary are hardly
organised.
The two major labour unions in all transport sectors (road transport, aviation, as well as
the other transport sectors) are FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijvenbond. FNV
Confederates (FNV Bondgenoten) is a member of the social-democratic Confederation of
Dutch Labour Unions FNV (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging). FNV Bondgenoten is
the result of a merger of Industriebond FNV (Union of Dutch Industries), FNV
Dienstenbond (Union of Dutch Services Industry), Vervoersbond FNV (Union of Dutch
Transport Workers) and Voedingsbond FNV (Union of Dutch Food Producers) and now
organises workers in all those sectors. FNV Bondgenoten has 491,169 members (CBS,
SEM, 2000/01). The union is member of ITF and ETF. Employees in the transport sector
are represented by the working group such as ‘freight transport’ and ‘passenger's
transport’.
CNV Industry Union (CNV Bedrijvenbond) is a member of the Christian National Union
Confederation (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond). The organisation represents
employees in industry, food production and transport. CNV Bedrijvenbond has 87,918
members (CBS, SEM, 2000/01). CNV is a member of ITF and ETF as well as the
international Christian FIOST and European Christian FEOST.
In the road haulage of freight, only these two labour unions are signatory to all five multi-
employer collective wage agreements in road haulage. It must be added that in local
transport, in six (of eight) local transport companies, where employment conditions are
regulated at firm-level, employees are represented by the public sector unions. This is due
to the fact that local transport has been privatised in some cities whereas in others it is
still a state service. As a consequence, the representation of the employees in local
transport is fragmented as well. Employees working for state-owned companies, as well
as employees in two privatised companies, are represented by the public sector labour
unions (Abvakabo FNV and CFO (affiliated to CNV), whereas the private sector
transport unions organise the other private sector employees. There is regular
consultation between public and private sector unions about labour conditions and the
expectation is that within a few years the members of the privatised companies will be
'taken over' by the private sector union. Organisational density in local public transport is
very high (about 70 percent). This may be explained by the lager size of the companies
and their status as former state-owned companies (FNV, interview).
In other economic sectors in the Netherlands, unions representing white-collar employees
(usually affiliated to Unie MHP), and sometimes categorial unions (either company-based
or representing very specific categories of staff), also participate in collective bargaining.
This is the case in aviation.