Monday Chatter in Germany

There are three curious bits of German news today.

First, this episode with the Mainz train station controllers.....which is halting most of the traffic through Mainz?  Well...it's continuing through today, and there are some promises that it might come to a conclusion by Tuesday.  The management guys?  It would appear that they are in total fear of calling back from vacation....the union controller guys.  It's hard to say if it's a negotiation episode that they don't want to step into, or a cost-factor.  Creating problems?  Yes, and it draws questions to other major cities, and if their local controller population has declined enough that the union might grab ahold of them.  It's comical in a way...almost everyone interviewed by the national news folks are negative about how this could happen, and it's the stuff you see in third-world countries.

The CDU's cousin in politics....the CSU (out of Bavaria).....has stepped up to suggest that foreign cars passing through Germany....ought to pay a toll tax for use of the roads.  Most folks are in speculation over this being strictly a political chat topic for the fall elections.  Hostility brewing?  Well....several European countries either have a toll or some pass system in effect.  The issue is that Germany has a vast number of people from foreign countries who use their autobahn system to pass through to other countries.....like Italy, France, or Denmark.

Finally, over the weekend, the Greens came to say that their bold suggestion for a weekly meatless day.....was more of a suggestion....than an absolute thing.  They rattled some facts about the bad factors of meat, but tried to emphasize that they weren't of the idea of taking away meat from a company canteen.  My humble guess is that they've realized that independents won't dare slide to the Green polling candidates.....if this becomes a major topic.  But again, it just shows that politics in Germany.....really gets people to say really stupid things, and then regret those.