Dairy campaigns mainly affect FrieslandCampina

Action was also taken at Bouter Kaas in Culemborg, part of Royal A-ware, but this concerned a different collective labor agreement, for the cheese warehouses. The actions of the unions are more or less the same, but the stakes differ. For the dairy collective labor agreement, employers offered 8% more wages, while CNV Vakmensen offered 10% and the FNV even more than 14%. For the cheese warehouses collective labor agreement, employers offer 7% more, while the unions demand the same amount as for the dairy collective labor agreement. So far, the parties are relatively close to each other. The dairy employers believe that they have put a clearly above-average offer on the table with more than 8% more wages, but the unions believe that there should be more to come. The result is 'that we are currently not speaking to each other', according to NZO spokeswoman Tanja Copal.

Most tension around dairy collective labor agreement
Yet the battle surrounding the dairy collective labor agreement seems to be the most exciting. This concerns the employment conditions for 12.000 people in about forty branches. Moreover, this is where the actions hit the hardest. Although the Union has already agreed to the employers' offer and, according to this union, most people continue to work as normal, CNV and FNV can still cause a lot of pain to employers with their actions.

Because the dairy industry is a process industry, a strike by a small number of people can shut down an entire company, which often happens. The result is that milk has to be sent to other locations to be processed, but sometimes into a less profitable product. A lot of milk also ends up on the spot market, where it sells for 20 or 22 cents per liter, while suppliers are paid 43 cents.

Lower organizational level of warehouses
In the cheese warehouses the situation is slightly different and usually less acute. This concerns a new collective labor agreement for approximately 5.000 people at eighty to ninety companies. The average degree of organization there is much lower than in the dairy industry and especially than at FrieslandCampina. The risk of the entire company going bankrupt is also usually less great. Although there are also 'cheese warehouses' where cheese is processed more intensively and an action by a limited number of union members can also have a great impact, Gemzu chairman Onno Boersma knows.

Like Copal, he is very disappointed that the collective labor agreement process is proceeding this way. "We started early last year to prepare a new collective labor agreement. Our final offer was made on February 7 of this year, and then the unions let an ultimatum expire on April 25." Of course, supply and demand are far apart, but Boersma wants to say that there has been enough time to prevent the current situation. A number of employers at the cheese warehouses have already started paying out in accordance with the collective labor agreement offer. The Gemzu would have preferred to wait for a total agreement, but understands that this is how it goes.

Not realistic
Such a situation does not exist in the dairy industry, says Copal. "We will first wait for further developments, but we do not consider the wage demands of the unions to be realistic percentages. FNV itself also indicates to its own employees that these types of demands are unattainable. The Dutch Central Bank, through Klaas Knot, also warns that even higher wage increases could lead to extreme and have negative effects on the economy. The dairy sector is also seeing business results decline."