RNW Press Review - Monday 25 February 2008 - by Jacqueline Carver

The Balkenende cabinet has now been in office for a year and to mark 365 days of Balkenende IV, de Volkskrant interviews Agnes Jongerius, chair of the FNV, the Netherlands’ largest trade union confederation. Her disappointment is reflected in the headline:"Balkenende IV is ignoring the unions".

The left-wing daily writes that the union leader is deeply disappointed by the Labour Party's contribution to government and that the cabinet only listens to employers’ organisations and has neglected important social issues such as maintaining purchasing power and capping salaries.

Ms Jongerius says, "This cabinet, including the Labour Party, has let all its good intentions slip away". She continues: "It should be about people but the prime minister only talks about fewer regulations for entrepreneurs".

* Plenty to talk about

The paper writes that the union leader is extremely angry with Social Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner for cancelling the traditional spring meeting between ministers, the unions and employers organisations.

Minister Donner cancelled the consultation round saying, "I don't want to participate in rituals for the sake of rituals" but Ms Jongerius says:

"I'm amazed that he can say that. Economic difficulties are approaching. I want to talk about spending power and inflation. There are 200,000 long-term unemployed people who need to find work. And where is the task force to help more women find jobs? If that's all too difficult for him, I've got an easy one: everybody is deeply concerned about increasing congestion on Dutch roads, we need to talk about tele-working as a means of solving the traffic jams".

* Kafka's chip card

AD reports that the Dutch Consumers Association and the Public Transport Users Association, known as ‘Rover’, have both called for the full nationwide introduction of the public transport chip card to be postponed.

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