Quote from: thijsdegraaf on November 03, 2021, 13:48

No, it is not at all mandatory to be a member in the Netherlands.
When I worked in construction as a technical draftsman, I was not a member.
When I became a teacher, I did sign up as a member, because at that time there was a lot of cutbacks in education. But that too was voluntary. I think half of my colleagues were not members.

Yes, I mixed that up. Being a Union member is not mandatory in The Netherlands, indeed (hence my edit, while you replied).
Correct me if I'm wrong (again), but companies above a certain size are mandated to host a union (works council) and grant union leaders special status.

Yes I saw you changed it.
I never noticed any particular status. But I'm no expert. You have general unions. Police, education, catering, transport, construction, etc. and also unions based on faith, which I think is nonsense.
On Wikipedia, they are all mentioned (in Dutch). https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_vakbonden_in_Nederland
The newspaper recently stated that the union hoped that Amazon (in response to the desire to open a branch in our country) would not hinder its employees from joining a union. This in response to reports about Amazon abroad.

Quote from: thijsdegraaf on November 03, 2021, 14:33

Quote from: Zero Talent on November 03, 2021, 13:52

Quote from: thijsdegraaf on November 03, 2021, 13:48

No, it is not at all mandatory to be a member in the Netherlands.
When I worked in construction as a technical draftsman, I was not a member.
When I became a teacher, I did sign up as a member, because at that time there was a lot of cutbacks in education. But that too was voluntary. I think half of my colleagues were not members.

Yes, I mixed that up. Being a Union member is not mandatory in The Netherlands, indeed (hence my edit, while you replied).
Correct me if I'm wrong (again), but companies above a certain size are mandated to host a union (works council) and grant union leaders special status.

Yes I saw you changed it.
I never noticed any particular status. But I'm no expert. You have general unions. Police, education, catering, transport, construction, etc. and also unions based on faith, which I think is nonsense.
On Wikipedia, they are all mentioned (in Dutch). https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_vakbonden_in_Nederland
The newspaper recently stated that the union hoped that Amazon (in response to the desire to open a branch in our country) would not hinder its employees from joining a union. This in response to reports about Amazon abroad.

The Dutch law specifies that union/works council leaders can only work a minimum amount of time and can't be fired.

Otherwise, people should be free to organize themselves as they want, faith-based inclusive. Why not?

I see no problem when unions negotiate with their employer.

The problem appears when they work hand in hand with politicians to impose regulations meant to protect their interests and privileges at the expense of others.

As I said, that's no different than what corporations do when they lobby governments for favorable regulations. Marx obviously forgot to mention that. 

When I was young (now 72) you had hospitals, cemeteries, radio stations, sports clubs, etc. based on faith.
I taught at a public school where children had all kinds of faiths. I find that more enjoyable. There are still schools based on faith, but fortunately this is no longer the case at hospitals, sports clubs, etc. The unions are also from that time. Why would a Christian construction worker go to another union as a Catholic or atheist? But other than that I don't worry about it. 

This is why I love the internet�all those little side discussions that are educational.

As for SS I was expecting the downturn to come later, 3-4 years after cutting contributor income so drastically.

Having 1.6 million contributors means nothing, eyeem has 30 million�.

For video you can already see clearly that they are missing vital content because the producers of good content went elsewhere or are no longer upploading new content.

For photos it is a mixed bag, the stock factories supply high quality and needed images, so it will take longer to see a decline.

Personally I am impressed with Adobestock, I am getting much better sales than on Shutterstock. I need to upload a lot more, but perhaps not competing with myself via Shutterstock is becoming and advantage.

Yet, almost two million folks, including myself, still feed them thus paying for their fancy cars, yachts and mansions...

Come on, it's almost two million of empty and one-page accounts. There are only about 40k folks, who can pay for their luxuries It was counted last year, approximately and a few years ago precisely.