On Labor Day, as the name suggests, hardworking people are put in the spotlight. In the Netherlands it is a normal working day for most people. Why is that and how did ‘May 1’ actually come about?
Why is May 1st in Ne no day off in the country?
The most important question first: where why do we have to work, while almost all other Europeans enjoy a day off paid for by their boss? This is partly because Queen’s Day used to fall on April 30 and we are mainly off on church holidays such as Christmas and Easter, says the FNV union.
Another reason, according to the union, is that the confrontations between unions and the State in our country were less intense than, for example, in France, Spain or Germany. Our polder model – negotiating instead of striking or demonstrating – has also taken the edge off those protests, meaning that the meaning of Labor Day has increasingly faded into the background for us.
What about our neighbors?
Du itsers and Belgians are free en masse. In Belgium, the ‘Festival of Labor’ is just as enshrined in law as a public holiday as the ‘Tag der Arbeit’ in Germany.
The Netherlands is an exception. Of the nearly two hundred recognized independent states in the world, only about twenty officially do not celebrate May 1. In addition to the Netherlands, this includes Saudi Arabia, Jamaica and Mongolia, according to data from the Wikimedia Foundation. The only other European country not participating is Denmark.
Always expires May 1 equally festive?
No t always. Germany and France in particular celebrate May 1 every year. It is not uncommon for serious riots to occur, with shops and bank buildings being destroyed and cars being set on fire, especially in the big cities. In Germany, the demonstrations of so-called Autonomists in the Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts are infamous. This year at least five thousand people will be out there again, German media report. In France, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on May 1 last year to protest against President Macron’s policies. There were riots in many cities, in which more than a hundred police officers were injured.
How is the Day of the Labor arise?
O To answer that question, we have to go back to the end of the nineteenth century. During the first congress of the international socialist organization Second International in 1889, it was decided to demonstrate for workers’ rights on May 1 the following year. The call comes mainly from the American Federation of Labor, the umbrella organization of employee organizations in the United States, and is widely heard. In the US and much of Europe, people took to the streets on May 1, 1890 for the eight-hour workday, better working conditions and world peace. It is the birth of the annual Labor Day.
Then we don’t do anything at all on May 1 in the Netherlands?
Toc h yes. Anyone who wants to celebrate the ‘successes of the union’ with music and a snack and a drink can go to Amsterdam on May 1. A march will start there at 2 p.m. from Museumplein and then there will be a demonstration in Martin Luther King Park. FNV is calling on cleaners in particular to participate this year. Negotiations for a new collective labor agreement in the sector started in March and they are going anything but smoothly.
Participation should be possible from a calendar perspective, because the current cleaning collective labor agreement includes May 1 as an extra paid day off. Although the union says that many employers still prefer to decide for themselves when this can be taken, for example on the employee’s birthday.
And so a slogan was coined, in the best tradition of Labor Day: ‘May 1st off is not a birthday present from the bosses’. The Second International would undoubtedly be proud of it.
