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The majority of the union’s rank and file had opposed the move, and FNV Bondgenoten, a union that brings together workers from the transport, catering and services sectors, and Abvakabo FNV, the most important public services union, decided to try and block the reforms. Paul de Beer, a professor in the University of Amsterdam’s faculty of law, describes the situation at the time in the following manner: ‘The FNV became paralyzed and in danger of disintegrating.’ In 2011, Agnes Jongerius, the leader of the FNV, infuriated the FNV’s two largest member unions by supporting the government’s plans to raise the retirement age to 67. In fact, in 2011 the FNV was even fighting for its very existence. Very few observers had foreseen this change of approach. This constitutes a change of strategy, and the cleaners’ struggle was ground-breaking in this regard. The strikers’ demands are particularly important as they were not merely calling for wage increases rather, they were usually demanding better working conditions. According to Statistics Netherlands, the Dutch government’s office for statistics, in 2017, 147,000 workers took part in 32 strikes. In 2017, primary school teachers, workers at the supermarket chain Jumbo, taxi and ambulance drivers, the KLM cabin crew and railway workers went on strike. Although the number of strike-days per worker in the Netherlands is still relatively low compared with Belgium or France, the country is currently experiencing its highest strike rate for 30 years – and this in a country known for its corporatism. The cleaners’ strike is just one example of a remarkable development that has taken place within the Dutch trade union movement. However, they were mainly calling for more respect: ‘When cleaning ladies at the airport tell you that they have to scrub the toilets very quickly because someone is already using the urinal next to them before they are finished,’ explains Eelco Tasma, a senior policy advisor at the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV), ‘then surely everyone can understand why they are demanding better working conditions and more respect.’ The strike turned out to be the longest in Dutch post-war history – and the strikers’ demands were met. The cleaners were demanding wage increases of EUR 0.50 an hour and sick pay that covered their first two days of illness. The strikers’ motto is: Schoon genoeg or ‘Clean, enough!’ĭuring the dispute, the media was completely focused on the strike it eventually lasted for six months – and this in a sector that many people view as difficult to organise. Many of its members were people of colour, including its chair, Khadija Tahir, and this aspect adds a particular explosive nature to this strike in light of the growing climate of right-wing populism.
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Why have they got these rights but we don’t?’ During this period, 75 cleaning workers founded the ‘cleaning ladies’ parliament’ to provide the strike with representation. ‘We work in the same buildings and offices as the people in the administration. As Getta Gajadhar explained to the press at the time, ‘We are asking for really normal things such as sick pay, and wages that are high enough to enable our families to get by.’ Gajadhar is a cleaner who works in the Dutch parliament building. The cleaners working in office buildings also join the strike. Trains are left overflowing with rubbish. Nobody cleans the parliament in the Dutch capital. All of the cleaning staff in the Netherlands who clean buildings belonging to the government and the state administration stop work at the same time and travel to protest in The Hague.
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© Rob Nelisse / Jo van der Spek / FNV BondgenotenĪpril 2014.