Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen

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NVV

Dutch Association of Trade Unions
Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen
Founded	1906
Date dissolved	1982
merged into	FNV
Country	Netherlands

The Nederlands Verbond van Vakverenigingen (English: Dutch Association of Trade Unions, NVV) was a Dutch social-democratic trade union.

[edit] History

It was founded in 1906 as a merger of fifteen smaller union. The reason for the foundation was the inability of the previous unions to control the radical elements of the workers movement in the railworkers' strike of 1903. The NVV was founded by Henri Polak, who was a prominent member of the socialist SDAP.

During the second world war the NVV was taken over by the German occupiers and it was transformed into a national socialist union. The leader of the NVV during the German occupation was Mr Woudenber. After the war these influences were purgued. After the war the NVV cooperated tightly with the centre left government to create a welfare state, based on the principles of corporatism.

In the 1970s the membership of the NVV began to decline due to depillarization. Under the leadership of Wim Kok the NVV oriented towards the protestant CNV and the catholic NKV to form a federation, which could strengthen the three. The NVV and the NKV merged to form the FNV in 1976, after the CNV had left the talks in 1973.

[edit] Ideology

The FNV started out as a socialist union, in favour of class struggle, workers' ownership of the means of production, and the use of strikes. After the second world war it began to moderate its tone, becoming, social-democratic and cooperating the creation of a welfare state and a corporatist economy.

[edit] Organization

The NVV has close formal, ideological and personal links with the socialist SDAP and later with the social-democratic PvdA. Together with the socialist VARA and several other organizations they formed the socialist pillar.