Kösters' PhD project focuses on how different groups of workers in the Netherlands were organised from the 1960s onwards. She shows that retail trade (supermarkets and warehouses) constituted a separate case within these organisation structures. While trade unions were traditionally well-organised within the industry, the de-industrialisation of the Netherlands from the 1970s meant that unions like FNV lost members, and became less represented in the rising service industry.
This was certainly the case for supermarkets. After the first supermarket opened in the Netherlands in 1953, large, successful chains such as Albert Heijn quickly emerged. In order to remain competitive, Albert Heijn began focusing on making working arrangements more flexible for its shop staff in the 1960s. The company also fought for years to extend opening hours, which small businesses were unable to compete with.
This also put pressure on the position of shop staff at supermarket chains such as Albert Heijn. Wages were low and working conditions left much to be desired. However, trade unions were not well known among workers, and only a few of them were members.
In the late 1980s, the FNV trade union wanted to change this. It saw an opportunity to raise its profile and recruit more members through large-scale campaigns in supermarkets, where many women and young people worked. On the initiative of FNV Diensten, Albert Heijn employees across the country went on strike in 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1995. They resisted the continuous extension of opening hours and fought for higher wages.
The strikes were tightly organised and centrally coordinated, Kösters showed. Since shop staff were spread across different branches, the action often took the form of guerrilla tactics and relay strikes. These had less of a national impact than, for example, train strikes or the prolonged shutdown of a factory. This has contributed to these strikes seeming to have disappeared from the collective memory. Furthermore, supermarket employees did not always adhere to the “line” set by the FNV and organised their own strike actions independently of the trade union.
This means that the strikes by Albert Heijn shop staff do not fit in with the prevailing image that there were few strikes during this period. It seems that the long-standing social tensions and ideological differences did not really disappear during this period of “new objectivity”, but rather shifted to new areas and sectors.