Trade union membership stable

On 1 January 2002, nearly 1.8 million people in the Netherlands were members of a trade union federation through membership of a trade union. Overall the three federations, FNV, CNV and MHP lost just over eight thousand members in 2001. The FNV gained members, while the CNV and MHP lost members. The shifts in membership numbers are caused by shifts in trade unions that join and leave the federations.

Members of trade union federations, 1 January 2002

Slight growth for AbvaKabo

The largest federation of trade unions, the FNV, gained just over three thousand new members in 2001, bringing its membership to 1.2 million. The increase was mainly caused by addition of the military police association which joined the general federation for military personnel. This member of the FNV gained nearly six thousand members. Of the other unions, the AbvaKabo gained 3.5 thousand members and grew to 362 thousand. The FNV construction union and the confederates both lost 2.5 thousand members and ended up with 155 and 486 thousand members respectively.

CNV uses new method of counting

Although the membership of the CNV fell by three thousand to 351 thousand, this was mainly the consequence of the new way the CNV counts its members. Only members who pay their membership fees are counted. This reduced the membership of the CNV artists union by nearly three thousand, but had hardly any consequences for the other CNV unions. The CNV union for workers in the wood and construction sectors gained most members: one thousand.

MHP: nine thousand fewer members

The smallest trade union federation, MHP, lost nearly nine thousand members, and fell to 206 thousand. This federation is composed of two umbrella organisations and two smaller unions. The membership of the two unions hardly changed. The umbrella UOV lost more than ten thousand members, mostly because the union NU ’91 resigned its membership The other umbrella organisation, CMHF, gained 1.5 thousand members.

Jo van Cruchten and Rob Kuijpers