Thursday, January 26, 2012

Transport strike in Germany

This Monday was a strike by the transport union drivers in my area. They are being paid on a different tariff than the standard tariff, but want to be shifted on the standard tariff. The strike was announced last week in some newspapers, but still many people didn't knew about it, especially the people not reading German newspapers. I also got to the bus stop next to my home and discovered that the electronic displays showing the next arriving buses was blank and only displaying the text that there is a strike from the drivers and buses are running according to an emergency schedule. I checked the website of the bus company and it said that they are trying to run some buses and that many bus-stops downtown have been occupied by the drivers, so it was not possible to service those bus-stops. We waited for the next bus for some time, but then they told on their website that they cannot serve the route towards my campus, so I decided to walk to office. Good thing that it is just a 10 minute walk downhill. Some of the colleagues decided to work from home. Many people were angry with the strike. Later I saw some pictures on the Internet of the people doing the strike. This was a very peaceful strike. I don't know if their demands were met. Earlier there have been frequent announced strikes from the transport drivers in Stuttgart, which had been going on for months (although the strike was always one day long every time). I just hope that these strike don't occur so frequently here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

IX12: Voting starts today!
Dear Yasir,

We wanted to let you know that the voting phase for the IX12 (International eXchange and eXperience) blog competition starts today. Your blog is listed with its page title in the list (sorted from A to Z) here:
http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/vote-for-your-favorite-ix12-blog

Any user may vote once until February 12 when voting ends. The blogs will be ranked according to number of votes and the winner will be announced on February 14.

In order to improve your chances of winning, we recommend you spread the word through your blog, to your users, family and friends so they can vote for your blog.
We wish you good luck!

Virgínia
On behalf of bab.la and the Lexiophiles team

Anonymous said...

IX12 - Voting ends February 12

Hello Yasir!

This is just a quick reminder that voting for IX12 (International Exchange & Experience Blog Competition) ends on February 12, 11:59 PM German time.

We have received over 7,000 votes so far! There is still time to get your blog on top of the list - just keep promoting it amongst your readers.

The top 100 blogs will be announced on February 14th.

Wishing you good luck,

Virgínia
on behalf of bab.la and the Lexiophiles language blog

Hussein said...

AOA yasir,
Im a hussein and a student of alevels. Dude im in love with your blog..no kidding! You blog is probably the first one i started following and because of this i blog i started the habit of reading blogs. Im planning on coming to germany after my alevels for my undergrad degree.
can you guide on a fews things:

1. Racism: Im very worried because i heard that ppl are quite racist there...i heard thats the case in east-Germany. Is it true? what is your point of view on this? I was really looking forward to visiting Berlin :(

2. part-time jobs: Although im not only depending on part-time jobs for my living expenses...my father will be more then happy to fund me, but do students get small jobs? Im also taking german classes in my college (roots school), so that might be a plus point right?

Ali akbar said...

Your blog is simply delightful to read. Me and the facebook group 'study and life in germany' request you to PLEASE write on a daily basis, we love this blog :)

Yasir Niaz Khan said...

WAA Hussein,
thank you for the encouragement.
Most of the undergrad degrees here are taught in German language. So either you have to learn a lot of German or find a program in English.
1. Racism is not present in West Germany. In East, there are sometimes some incidents, but a lot of foreigners are living there and I think the situation is improving. However, I think in Berlin I have never heard of such incidents. It is the capital and already an international city. Areas around Dresden and Leipzig might be a little bit dangerous, but there are international students there as well.
2. Yes many students get part-time jobs here, either on-campus or off-campus. Usually, on-campus jobs are well-paid, less exhausting and don't usually need German; whereas, off-campus jobs mostly need German language.

So Good Luck with your studies.