More railway strikes in Germany

March 6, 2008 By 6 Comments

We thought it was all over – but obviously it isn’t. The Bahnstreiks, or railway strikes. It seems that the union that represents the train drivers is planning strikes for next week, even though they effectively got what they were asking for.

Just listen to the details of the deal that they worked out with Deutsche Bahn recently:

  • an extra wage agreement “Tarifvertrag” for train drivers
  • a back-dated one-off payment
  • an 8% wage rise from March 2008
  • a further 3% wage rise in September 2008
  • a reduction of working hours from February 2009 onwards

There are probably many unions out there that can only dream of an 11% wage rise!

But now they cannot agree on what to do with shunters, or with temporary staff leased from other parts of the company.

And because they cannot agree, the GDL – the union representing the train drivers – says that they are going on strike again on Monday. Indefinitely.

Indefinitely? Because of a few small details? They didn’t even go that far to get their main targets met!

In the meantime the poor passengers are left stranded, and probably wishing that they could have an 11% wage rise as well.

Filed Under: Current affairs, Travel Tagged With: , , , ,

Palmsonntag

March 6, 2008 By 4 Comments

Palmsonntag (Palm Sunday) is the Sunday before Easter.

On this day the Church remembers Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, riding a donkey, where the bystanders waved palm leaves and hailed “Hosana”.

In addition the Catholic Church remembers Christ’s suffering – the so-called Passion, whereas the Protestant Church does this later on in the week on Good Friday.

On this day people go to Church and take palm leaves with them to be blessed.

Two other traditions on this day are:

  • the Palmesel – the last person in the family to get up on this Sunday
  • the Palmhase – like the Easter Bunny, except it brings one or two eggs on Palmsonntag and is a tradition in the Odenwald – part of Hessen.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download a transcript

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Filed Under: Easter, German Words Explained, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , ,

Doch kein Rauchverbot?

March 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Zumindest nicht ganz in Rheinland-Pfalz. Dort war es sowieso für mich eine Lachnummer: andere Länder haben bereits im letzten Jahr oder zum Jahresende ein Rauchverbot eingeführt. Rheinland-Pfalz hat zwar das Gesetz verabschiedet, jedoch das Verbot erst nach der Karnevalzeit eingeführt!

Nun ist auch das geändert worden, wie man in diesem Bericht lesen kann. Inhabergeführte Kneipen – also da wo der Inhaber selbst bedient – dürfen doch das Rauchen zulassen.

Als Nichtraucher finde ich das blöd: sollen kleinere Kneipen nun zu Raucherecken werden? Größere werden es eher nicht, wegen den Mitarbeiter.

Aber gut, es gibt ja noch andere Bundesländer in Deutschland wo man Abends hingehen kann 🙂

Filed Under: Cymeradwyo, Rauchverbot Tagged With: ,

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