Several hundred protesters clashed with police at a Berlin unemployment office as a sharp cutback in jobless benefits took effect in a government effort to push people to find work.
Police in riot helmets used pepper spray on Monday as they blocked protesters from entering the office in Wedding, a working-class neighborhood with high unemployment, and made several arrests.
Smaller Protests
Scattered protests in Nuremberg, Munich, Leipzig and Stuttgart drew only a few dozen people each, falling far short of mass marches by tens of thousands in August and September against Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's labor market reforms.
The new law taking effect on Monday is dubbed Hartz IV, after Volkswagen executive Peter Hartz, who headed a commission that drew up the reforms.
It is part of Schroeder's program to shake up the country's expensive welfare state benefit system and spur more economic growth.
Lower Payments
After people use up their basic jobless benefits -- whose duration varies -- the new system will lower their payments to 345 euros (US$465) a month in western Germany and 331 euros (US$408) in the formerly communist east, plus rent and heating allowances. Previously, people could receive more than half of their last net salary.
In addition, those getting the reduced aid may be forced to take part in government make-work projects for 1 euro an hour if they don't get another job.
The idea is to provide an incentive to get off unemployment.
But, with the jobless rate higher than 10 percent, many unemployed fear there won't be work to find, and Schroeder's initiative has drawn critics from within his own Social Democratic party.
"I don't hope for much from the labor market," said one of the Berlin protesters, Klaus Rathmann, 53, who said he has been out of work for seven years since losing his job with a tobacco company.
Mixed Reaction
"I think they're going in the wrong direction," he said.
A parliamentary spokesman on labor issues for the Social Democrats, Klaus Brandner, called the launch of the changes "a good day for our country."
He cautioned, however, that more changes could be in store if the new law doesn't work.
"If it turns out it isn't efficient, it will be changed as soon as possible," he said on ZDF public television.
Conservative opposition politician Roland Koch warned that only an upturn in economic growth could create more jobs for people to take.
"The chancellor has left the impression that Hartz IV will create jobs," said Koch, the governor of the southwestern state of Hesse.
"The reform, by itself, won't create any new positions," he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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