Netherlands: the federation of private sector halts the FNV transformation project

The transformation projects for the largest central Dutch union, the FNV, (c.f. article No. 8637) has stalled. Although it was aiming to merge its main sectoral federations so as to create a single united union, the initial vote by the FNV federation congress (FNV Bondgenoten) to first dissolve the sectoral unions has failed to garner the necessary 2/3 majority, missing out by just 8 votes. A few days earlier, the large public sector FNV union, ABVAKABO, had agreed to the merger project. However, without the agreement of FNV Bondgenoten the merger project falls apart. Nobody know where to go from here. The FNV Bondgenoten president has resigned and crisis meetings are being held by the other partners to examine all the options.