VNO-NCW is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 employers' federation.

History

VNO-NCW was founded in 1996 as fusion of the Christian-democratic Nederlands Christelijk Werkgeversverbond (NCW), which was founded as fusion of the Protestant PCW and the Catholic NKW, and the liberal Verbond van Nederlandse Ondernemingen (VNO). Both organizations had strong ties with the Protestant and liberal pillar respectively.

Name

The federation chose not to adopt a new name, but instead use the well-known acronyms of its constituent organizations.

Activities

The most important function of VNO-NCW is the CAO-talks, over wages and secondary working conditions, it holds with the trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s. It also advises government via the Social Economic Council in which other employers' organizations, trade unions and government appointed experts also have seats.

Organization

VNO-NCW is the national employers' federation, it has 160 branch organizations

Industry trade group

A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association or sector association, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry...

 as members, these organize 115,000 companies

Company

A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...

. This includes 80% of the smaller corporations and nearly all larger businesses.

The VNO-NCW has got a General Board and Board. The general board meets six times a year, and sets the general policy. The Board manages the daily operation of VNO-NCW. The current chair is Bernard Wientjes. The last chairs of the organization have been member of either the liberal VVD or the Christian-democratic CDA

Christian Democratic Appeal

The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...

.

Several formally independent regional employers' associations, such as VNO-NCW North, VNO-NCW West, the Employers' Association of Brabant and Zeeland and the Employers' Association of Limburg are in close cooperation with VNO-NCW.

The organization publishes Forum, its own magazine. AWVN is an advisory organization linked to VNO-NCW specialized in labour relations. De Baak is an educative institution for entrepreneurs.

External links

• website VNO-NCW in English