3.2 Employers and labour unions in aviation
In the airlines sector, firms conclude their own company collective agreements. Multi-
employer collective agreements do not exist, nor are there any employer’s organisations
for the sector. The aviation companies KLM, Martinair and Transavia are directly
affiliated to the national employers’ association VNO-NCW.
At union side however, no fewer than 8 labour unions are active, an exceptionally high
number in the Netherlands. Taken all members of the labour unions, the estimated
membership density in the sector as a whole would be about 60 percent11, which is much
higher than the national average of 28 percent. Membership density amongst airline pilots
is on average over 90 percent (at KLM: 98 percent) (source: VNV) and this figure quite
increases the average membership density in aviation.12
In aviation, a general distinction may be made between unions that organise
• ground staff, freight settlement and maintenance
• pilots and cabin crew (‘flying staff’),
• categorial company-based unions, particularly at KLM
Ad 1. Ground staff, freight settlement and maintenance employees are represented by
FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Bedrijvenbond13 (which also organise employees in other
transport sectors and which we discussed in the previous paragraph) and a white-collar
union, De Unie. De Unie (Union for Industry and Services) represents 111,279
employees in all sectors (CBS: SEM 2/1999). De Unie is affiliated to the UOV, the Union
of Independent Labour Organisations (Unie voor Onafhankelijke Vakorganisaties)14,
which is again affiliated to the national white-collar confederation Unie MHP. De Unie is
directly affiliated to FIET, the International Federation of commercial, clerical,
professional and technical employees.
Ad.2 Cabin crew and pilots are represented by two separate labour unions. The Union for
Dutch Cabine Crew (Vakbond voor Nederlands Cabinepersoneel, VNC) has members
amongst the cabin crew of all major airline companies. At the international level VNC is
directly affiliated to ETF and ITF (VNC, Interview). The Association of Dutch Airline
Pilots (Vereniging van Nederlandse Verkeersvliegers, VNV) exclusively organises pilots.
Organisational density under airline pilots is extremely high: the VNV organises about 90
percent of all Dutch pilots (at KLM the organisational density is even higher; at
Transavia and Martinair a little lower but nevertheless around 70-80 percent). The reason
11 FNV Bondgenoten, interview.
12 An estimate of membership density amongst ground staff only is difficult to give as membership figures of the
ground staff unions also include membership amongst freight settlement and maintenance companies. But if we
exclude pilots and cabin crew from both categories of the membership density calculation (the total number of
staff and the members of the respective labour unions), the estimate membership density amongst ground staff,
freight settlement and maintenance is about 45 percent, which is still relatively high for Dutch standards.
13 CNV mainly represents employees of the airline companies and has fewer members among the freight settlement
and maintenance employees.
14 The UOV is an intermediary organisation and does not have individuals as members but represents 25
independent labour unions.
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