strike

Another day of striking. Today the march took us to the head quarter of the SPD, the German labour party. One could think that they have lost sight of their origins. The protest was huge. This time we were joined by the CFM, the Charité Facility Management, that is a subsidiary of the Charité but are not part of the same pay deal. One third of their workforce are members of the union. Amongst other things they are demanding to be part of the same pay deal and a right to full time work. I don't quite understand where the last demand comes from. It sounds to me like they are using zero-hours contracts. They are preparing for a long drawn out struggle. On the way back we watched firefighters rescue a lamp post which was threatening to fall into a construction site. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised they have big mobile cranes.

I did enjoy the lovely sunshine and the chat with some colleagues. I used the opportunity to walk past the Bayer Pharmaceuticals factory (it is massive) and explore Moabit a little. Collected Rowan after work.