Munich (dpa/lby) – The Verdi trade union called on the Munich street cleaning service to go on a warning strike on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday of all days. “The strike at the climax of carnival will make it clear what it would mean if there were no street cleaning in the city of Munich,” the union said on Sunday. With the “Dance of the Market Women” on the Viktualienmarkt, Shrove Tuesday is the highlight of the carnival season in Munich.
According to Heinrich Birner, Managing Director of Verdi Munich, around 150 strikers are expected to attend a rally on Marienplatz on Ash Wednesday. With the actions, the union wants to put pressure on the employers’ side in the forthcoming collective bargaining in the public sector.
The work of the street cleaners is “hardly noticed in everyday life,” said the Verdi statement. “They haven’t been applauded from the balconies yet. They take care of the city’s hygiene and thus prevent plagues of vermin” – and that in some cases when work starts at 4 a.m. “By the time the city wakes up, most of the rubbish from the previous day and night has already been removed.” After the carnival this year, however, things should be different.
