TRADE-UNIONS AND THE PROVISION OF WELFARE IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1910-1960

Why did workers join unions? Union rhetoric often claimed that they di d so solely out of a desire to further the collective interests of the working classes. Such a claim dismisses workers who did not join: 'th e unorganized commits a breach of duty to his fellow workers and to hi s class. He is an obstacle to the self-denying efforts to create a bet ter society. ... It is... necessary to make the proletariat clear that the unorganized worker is a socially disordered person.'(2) Such a po int of view may have its rhetorical uses, but it is inadequate in any serious analysis of the development of trade unions.(3) It fails to un derstand the actions of large parts of the working classes since it po rtrays the unorganized as irrational. By neglecting the free-rider pro blem in collective action it also fails to understand union members an d union organization. Olson pointed out that a self-interested group m ember will attempt to enjoy the benefits of a collective arrangement f rom which he or she cannot be excluded (because exclusion is impossibl e or not feasible because of high costs) without contributing to the a rrangement.(4) Such free-riding hampers collective action, even when t his would be beneficial to all. So even if unions are established to f urther the collective interests of workers, it still does not follow t hat a rational worker would join; he or she would, for instance, profi t just as much from better wages negotiated through the union by not j oining. In Olson's words, 'the union member, like the individual taxpa yer, has no incentive to sacrifice any more than he is forced to sacri fice'.(5)