Hows the overall strength of the union movement here?
Overall, between the GNV unions, the Democratic Christian unions which are Protestant; and the professional personnel – it would be 28 per cent. The influence that unions have has to do with the Dutch model of labour relations in which we look for win-win situations rather than looking for conflict. There are several examples where we have been able to resolve issues that divide unions, employers and the government in other countries. For example, flexi-workers and the riseof agencies for temporary workers. At first, the trade unions struggled against it, but later out we found out that there were many workers to work in that kind of job. And at the same time, the demand from companies for these types of workers was increasing. Existing law didn’t reflect this reality and we accepted there was a need for a new law. Political parties couldn’t come to an agreement, so they asked the social partners (employers and trade unions) to deal with it. What emerged was a compromise which lifted t
