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: , , , ,

Why I think I'll avoid the United Arab Emirates

February 15, 2008 By 6 Comments

An interesting piece of news caught my eye this week – tourists are being warned of tough drug laws in the United Arab Emirates.
This is the only country that I have ever been to in the Middle East, and even then I only saw the airport as I was in transit between Singapore and London. I can remember how the cabin crew told us to leave our hand luggage on the plane to avoid any problems when re-boarding.
Maybe now I understand why – the article describes how people have been sentenced for having minute amounts of cannabis stuck to their shoes. Other had prescription medicines with them.
The one that really makes me shudder is the man traveller who had poppy seeds on his clothes from a bread role that he had eaten and was sentenced to four years in jail!
It all makes me want to stay away from that country.  But wait – only today I read that Germany has a similar situation.  Apparently eating three pieces of poppy seed cake is sufficient to fail a roadside drugs test, resulting in the loss of your driving license.
I think I’ll stick to cheese cake!

Filed Under: Cymeradwyo, Middle East, Travel Tagged With:

Rule 240? I like it!

February 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading on the MSNBC Website about an interesting piece of consumer protection called “Rule 240” for airline customers in the US, and I have to say that I like the sound of it.
I recommend that you read the full article, but to summarise: if your flight is cancelled, you may have the right for the airline to fly you at their expense on another carrier’s plane.
Now we do have consumer protection laws for these things in Europe, indeed the EU standardised them a few years ago for air travel, but they are all very much based on compensation for delayed or overbooked flights. All very well and good, but what use is compensation if you can’t fly on holiday or end up with less time at your resort?
The idea that the airline has an obligation to fly you there with someone else’s flight sounds like a very good idea!

Filed Under: Cymeradwyo, North America, Travel Tagged With: ,

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