In July, Statistics Netherlands published that in 2010 the population’s average purchasing power fell by 0.5%, whereas CPB, the government’s main economic body, predicted a continuous decrease in purchasing power of on average 1-2% yearly till 2015. Against this backdrop, on 23 August the FNV union confederation wrote a letter to PM Mark Rutte, arguing that the effects of the budget cuts announced by the government are highly unfair and will heavily hit the low- and middle-income groups. The confederation points at the cumulative negative effects of a number of measures, rising the costs of for instance child care and house renting. At a press conference, FNV bargaining coördinator Catelene Passchier characterised the expense cuts of the government, totaling €18 billion till 2015, as too large; she stressed the importance of maintaining purchasing power for the recovery of the Dutch economy.
Dutch: NRC-Handelsblad, 23 and 24 August 2011; De Volkskrant, 12 July and 23 August 2011
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.