a strong and assertive trade union is more urgent today than ever before, emphasized doris stadelmayer, district manager of the united services trade union verdi, at the anniversary celebration of the verdi local association coburg on friday. The local association honored over 80 of its members for their many years of loyalty. You had joined one of verdi’s predecessor organizations 70, 60, 50, 40 and 25 years ago. Looking back on the years of membership, stadelmeyer recalled some historically striking events and developments. looking at the present, stadelmeyer lamented the social gap that is widening in germany at present. "The economy is booming, but most employees are not benefiting", scolded the district manager. "They work more and more often in insecure jobs where the earnings are often not enough to live on." michael blumlein, deputy chairman of the coburg branch of verdi, described the union as a strong community of solidarity. "We have practiced having a say, being involved and helping to shape the game for decades." DGB regional chairman mathias eckardt described the debates on working hours and the design of old-age pensions as currently important issues for the future of the trade union movement.
The honorees:
70 years of membership: hans bohme, hildegard riedl and rudi weschenfelder.
60 years of membership: heidi bauer-muller, dieter braasch, wilhelm dewenter, manfred hoffmann, roland hohn, adolf koch, herbert ratsch, gudrun robberg, bernd schuller, arno stammberger and norbert thiemt.
50 years of membership: christine bonert, michael kaufmann, klaus kerschbaum, wilhelm lutter, ottfried richter, erwin rother and alfred steckmann.
40 years of membership: detlef bahring, walter esch, ludwig frenking, andreas giese, andrea grobmann, uwe hornlein, dietmar kaiser, emil kirchner, hans-joachim kohler, michael kolb, klaus lindner, peter ludwig, manuela paul, jurgen peschke, angelika reich, roland santen, ursula schuster, harald stahnke, uwe stummer, lutz sussenguth, christine weiss and jurgen wittal.
25 years of membership: candy altenfelder, heiko batz, klaus birke, joerg blisse, friedrich boos, christian brehm, thomas buttner, walter ehrlich, sabine ewert, kurt fischer, martina fischer, wolfgang flurschutz, ruediger geisler, monika gloge, matthias grellert, elke hager, erika herr, jurgen hoffmann, hans-jurgen ihn, michaela jorg, erika kilian, andre klink, jurgen kluglein, wolfram krause, udo langguth, sabine marr, lydia meixner, dieter raab, sabine rauschert, udo rauschert michaela reuter, svend richter, dietrich rose, cornelia rossberg, ivonne roszyk, arnold schwerdt, andreas traut, harald wengert, andrea werner, sandra wolf and randolf wunder.