kader kleurschema huisstijlhandboek thonik © 2011 CMYK 50/25/100/0 CMYK 25/0/100/0 CMYK 0/50/100/0 CMYK 0/70/100/0 RGB 150/160/25 RGB 215/215/0 RGB 255/150/0 RGB 255/105/10 CMYKOn 0/100/100/0 the CMYK 0/100/0/0 CMYK 0/50/0/0 CMYK 40/100/0/0 RGBWaterfront 225/0/25 RGB 225/0/125 RGB 255/160/195 RGB 165/0/125 newsletter of the friends of the iish 2018 no. 36 First results of Heilbron Lectures: Trade Union & Fräser Post-war History and IISH Archive Posthumus CMYK 70/70/0/0 CMYK 100/100/0/0 CMYK 100/0/50/0 CMYK 100/0/0/0 RGB 100/90/160 RGB 25/40/130 RGB 0/150/145 RGB 0/160/225 11 On the Waterfront 36 – 2018 Intro duction Cover photo: In the first half of 2018 energies at the Institute files in a single step, rather than readers needing Doll of Mieke were channelled toward its evaluation by an ex- to sift through each individual source text, is Meijer, 1992. ternal committee of experts from academia and conducive to entirely new research questions. Photo IISG. collections. On 15 and 16 March this committee The iish wants to be involved in such advances. IISG Call visited the Institute and interviewed many staff number BG members. While the definitive outcome has not Huub Sanders K21/879 been disclosed yet, in an initial reaction at the See page 6. end of the visit on 16 March the iish received About the Friends great praise for the progress accomplished since Members of the Friends of the iish pay annual dues of the evaluation in 2011. 25, 100 or 500 euros or join with a lifetime donation The Institute organized a great many activi- of 1,500 euros or more. In return, members are invited ties concerning the trade unions in the first half to semi-annual sessions featuring presentations of iish of 2018, including the launch of ‘trade union acquisitions and guest speakers. These guest speakers stories,’ the interviews with Wim Kok, the pro- deliver lectures on their field of research, which need not ject ‘Vele Handen’ concerning the andb, and the be related to the iish collection. The presentation and report ‘the precarious polder.’ Loran van Diepen lecture are followed by a reception. The Friends coordi- reports on this work in the feature article of this nator may consult the Friends about allocation of the issue. revenues from the dues and delivers an annual financial From 11 to 13 April, the iish hosted the Ar- report in conjunction with the iish administration. chivematica Camp, an international gathering As a token of appreciation for their great contribution for people using Archivematica to preserve digi- to the Friends, Jaap Kloosterman and Jan Lucassen were tal archives. The open source system has been appointed as honorary members in 2014. selected by the iish for this increasingly impor- The iish was founded by master collector N.W. Post- tant aspect of archive work. The gathering was humus (1880-1960) in the 1930s. For the past two dec- lively and dynamic. ades, two of the institutions established by this ‘history Many of the above activities took place in entrepreneur’ have operated from the same premises: the areas left vacant by the Press Museum. Now the Netherlands Economic History Archive founded in called the Max Nettlau Room, it is pleasant and 1914 and the International Institute of Social History, spacious and offers many opportunities. which is now more than 80 years old. Both institutes The final note concerns the recent grant to continue to collect, although the ‘subsidiary’ iish has clariah+. The consortium in which the iish grown considerably larger than its ‘parent’ neha. Ad- participates was awarded a total of 13.8 million ditional information about the Institute may be found euros by the Ministry of Education and Science. in Jaap Kloosterman and Jan Lucassen, Rebels with a This sum will enable the next step in advanced Cause: Five Centuries of Social History Collected humanities research, dedicated mainly to analys- by the iish (Amsterdam 2010). For all information ing the content of digital texts. The option ena- concerning the Friends, see http://socialhistory.org/en/ bling comprehensive searches of very large text friends Colophon Cruquiusweg 31 Editors: Bouwe Hijma, Eric de Ruijter, Ineke Kellij, Jacqueline Rutte P.O. Box 2169, 1000 cd Amsterdam Huub Sanders We wish to thank: Annemieke van Tel.: + 31 20 668 58 66 Translations: Lee Mitzman Bockxmeer, Loran van Diepen, Jacques Fax: + 31 20 665 41 81 Photography: Hans Luhrs van Gerwen, Frank de Jong, Peter Jan socialhistory.org Design and layout: Ruparo (Ivo Sikkema, Knegtmans, Lauren Romijn [email protected] Ingeborg Seelemann) IISH Coordinator: Huub Sanders Deutsche Bank Nederland n.v. 0555958892 Printed by: Wilco, Amersfoort Questions, including on subscriptions of iban: NL11DEUT0555958892 Website: Machteld Maris On the Waterfront: [email protected] bic: DEUTNL2N Financial administration: Guusje On the Waterfront is supported by Varkevisser and Tjerck Zittema Koninklijke Brill NV Administrative and secretarial support: ISSN 15742156 2 On the Waterfront 36 – 2018 The IISH puts the history of trade unions on the map In the past year the iish has continued to high- mitigate wages in exchange for creating jobs. At light the social significance of its collections and the time, many trade union officials regarded ‘re- research among the general public, showcasing sponsible wage progression’ as a courageous and the illustrious history of Dutch trade unions. The sensible way to deal with the economic recession iish uses four different approaches to ensure and widespread unemployment in the 1980s. that the collections and historical research con- Many experts and fnv policy officers today, how- ducted are not isolated efforts but also improve ever, emphasize the disadvantages ensuing from insight into trends in current labour relations. the agreement. Questions are also increasing These activities include: about the polder model, in which trade unions 1) a digital project, where volunteers help try wherever possible to work with employers to provide access to the membership records of the devise solutions for labour market abuses. Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkersbond fnv chairman at the time Wim Kok was a (andb) [General Dutch Diamond Workers Union] strong advocate of the Wassenaar Agreement. 2) the launch of the website vakbondsverha- Before becoming chairman, Kok had a lengthy len.nl service record within the fnv and its predeces- 3) the Wim Kok tapes, and sor the NVV. The iish asked the former union 4) ‘What’s up with Flex?’ – a debate organized man for an interview about his quarter century about the increasing flexibility on the Dutch (1961-1985) with the trade unions. This resulted labour market and what flex workers, the trade in the Wim Kok tapes, sixteen hours of video- union movement, state and local authorities, and recorded interviews, relating the recollections of employers can and should do about this trend. Kok to the social transitions. The former union As this brief list illustrates, the projects derive man answers difficult questions with remarkable from different clarifications of the relevance ease. A journalist for De Volkskrant suggested that of social history. The project ‘Amsterdamse Kok should have been asked about more contro- Diamantbewerkers and the andb’ exemplifies versial topics, for example about the effects of the most innovative method. The iish posted the Wassenaar Agreement. Could flexibilizing a request on www.velehanden.nl for people to the labour market, which has made workers less help enter data from membership cards of the inclined to strike and has reduced the share of andb, the first ‘modern trade union,’ which was union membership, be attributable from ‘Was- founded in 1894. This approach proved very fruit- senaar’? ful. Unlike most research projects, in this case the public is not only informed of the results Els Hogerhuis but is also pivotal in conducting the research. In speaks in addition to the grandchildren of Amsterdam dia- ‘De Balie’, mond workers, newly graduated archivists and 12 April 2018 historians helped enter the data from the hand- written membership cards. They feel they are on a historic journey: ‘my goodness, on some mem- bership cards I read that a father sends a son or daughter to become an apprentice diamond worker at a large factory; I cannot imagine my father hiring me out as temporary staff,’ mused a fellow archivist. In addition to relying on the ‘velehanden’ plat form, the iish launched its own dedicated website. On 23 January at the packed Pakhuis de Zwij ger the iish presented www.vakbondsver- halen.nl, ‘50 inspiring, exciting, and compelling stories from trade union history,’ selected by iish historian Sjaak van der Velden. Videos, podcasts, and historical visual materials demonstrate that ‘trade unions are about much more than strikes’ and have endeavoured to educate and train workers. One of the items also revealed that aside from campaigning, the fnv has frequently joined negotiations with employers about in- creasing wages, as well as occasional efforts to reach a compromise about wage mitigation. That was in 1982, when the fnv reached the Was- senaar Agreement with employers, arranging to 3 On the Waterfront 36 – 2018 On 12 April at De Balie those concerned about Els Hogerhuis, who worked at the women’s sec- zero-hour contracts, payroll structures, and retariat back then, was presented with the first other tenuous work arrangements had an op- copy of Precaire polder as a special tribute. At the portunity to ask questions during the afternoon time, Els indicated the impact of flexibilization debate ‘What’s up with Flex?’ featuring experts on the daily lives of workers.