175,000 Defenders of the Welfare State Take to the Streets

Today, more than 175,000 people took to the streets in 15 cities across Germany, in part to show Mr. Merz that we are not too lazy to take to the streets on a Saturday off from work. These are not reforms when the governing coalition casts a blanket suspicion of laziness and feigning illness on working people and slashes the country’s social security system.

“What the CDU/CSU and the SPD are trying to sell us as ‘reforms’ is nothing less than an attack on the rights of wage earners and the welfare state,” said DGB Chairman Frank Werneke at the rally in Frankfurt. Regarding the government’s pension package, he said: “The package must be unpacked, and the bad parts must be removed.” Calling for improvements to health care, he demanded: “Instead, we advocate for a citizens’ insurance system for health and long-term care, financed in part by high rental income and stock market profits — not just workers’ wages.”

Yesterday’s demands were:

• Pensions: We want a pension reform that recognizes people’s lifetime contributions and ensures a sufficiently high level of statutory pension benefits.
• Fixed-term contracts without objective grounds: We want to abolish fixed-term contracts without objective grounds and ensure fair prospects and job security for everyone!
• Healthcare: We want quality care and stable health insurance plans instead of unimaginative cuts, lousy working conditions, and a one-sided burden on the insured!
• Sick Leave: We want bosses and the government to trust us: When we say we’re sick, we’re sick!
• Long-Term Care: We want long-term care insurance to be overhauled: secure, based on solidarity, and future-proof!
• Housing Allowance: We want the planned cuts to housing allowances to be stopped!
• Child, youth, and integration assistance: We want the most vulnerable to be the most protected!
• Job cuts at federal agencies and indirect federal administration: We want good service for all citizens!
• Make a change: The money is there — it just needs to be used differently!

Read more https://berlin-brandenburg.dgb.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung/demonstration-fuer-einen-gerechten-sozialstaat/
and https://www.verdi.de/stabilbleiben-sozialgestalten/175000-sozialstaatsretterinnen-strasse

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