ABSTRACT
THE LATE RISE OF TRADE UNIONISM An economy consists of a coherent system of markets on which products and production factors are traded at certain prices. The labour market is special for a number of reasons. This is where humans and their work capacity are traded, which means that human welfare is highly dependent on its efficiency. The labour market has therefore been subject to more institutional changes than other markets. Trade unions emerged in response to the superior bargaining power of employers, and they won the right to bargain collectively. Trade unions established collective insurance schemes against unemployment, sickness and disability, with an eye to decreasing the degree of direct dependence on employers. Special institutions were set up to bring together supply and demand. Finally, for a number of reasons, government began to regulate the market. As a result the labour market has been radically transformed: whereas it was almost completely ‘free’ for the greater part of the nineteenth century-until 1869 unions were officially forbidden in the Netherlands-after 1945 it probably became the most regulated market of the economy. In this chapter some of the factors behind the transformation and some of its consequences will be studied.
