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Glance around Switzerland: Swiss Guards on the run, SBB taken to court, 111th birthday and angry neighbours

Our roundup of stories you might have missed this week includes Swiss guards on the run, SBB going to court, angry neighbours, a 111th birthday and more.

Published: 11 January 2019 11:00 CET
Glance around Switzerland: Swiss Guards on the run, SBB taken to court, 111th birthday and angry neighbours
Will Swiss Guards soon be competing at the Olympics? Photo: AFP

As always, we've tried to give you an overview of the story and a link to follow up on it, if you want. 

Swiss Guards on the run 

Priests take part in a fun run in front of St Peter's in 2013. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

The Vatican has launched its own athletics team, hoping to compete in international competitions – including the Olympics. So you could see the Swiss Guards at Tokyo 2020.

Currently, the newly-formed Vatican Athletics team has 60 members and counts nuns, priests and Swiss Guards among their numbers.

The oldest member of the team is a 62-year-old professor of the Vatican Apostolic Library while the youngest is a 19-year-old Swiss Guard. 

You can read more on this story on The Local Italy website.

Celebrating 111 years of life

Photo: Chepko/deposit photos

Switzerland’s oldest inhabitant, Alice Schaufelberger, celebrates her 111th birthday today.

The Aargau native was born in 1908 and, despite being in her own words “weak and tiny” at birth, has managed to live nearly 30 years beyond the average age expectancy in Switzerland (82).

Alice’s husband passed away 80 years ago but, to this day, she still wears her wedding band.

Watson has more on this story. 

SBB taken to court by disabled group

Photo: Gina Sanders/deposit photos

Inclusion Handicap, the umbrella organisation of disability groups in Switzerland, is taking its fight against the new SBB double decker trains to the Supreme Court.

This follows a Federal Administrative Court ruling that the trains (called the FV-Dosto) must have at least one wheelchair ramp that provides access to a wheelchair area with a disabled toilet.

Inclusion Handicap says the trains are inaccessible to independent people with disabilities and that this ruling is therefore against the law.

The new trains were introduced on December 9 last year. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung has more.

Mars products boycotted by Coop

Photo: Bumble-Dee/deposit photos

Swiss supermarket chain Coop is refusing to sell Mars products due to a pricing dispute and has not ordered any Mars products for weeks.

This follows on from last year when Coop boycotted Nestlé products for two months. This dispute was ended by Nestlé agreeing to lower its prices. 

Coop is part of a European consortium, Agecore, that says Mars is charging too much for its products.  

In 2017, Coop made CHF29.2 billion (25.7 billion Euros) in sales, making it Switzerland's second best performing retailer. 
 
Le Matin has more on this story. 

Geneva taxis on strike

Photo: corepics/deposit photos

Taxi drivers in Geneva have been protesting this week against illegal transporters stealing their fares. 

Around 100 drivers blocked parts of Geneva airport on Friday as they take a stand against unauthorised vehicles from France, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia and other countries driving tourists from Geneva airport to nearby ski resorts. 

The taxi drivers say these vehicles offer discounted prices that they cannot match, while paying no tax, and have asked for a meeting with the airport manager to discuss the situation. 

Blick has more on this story.

More than half of Swiss are angry at neighbours 

Photo: Rod_Julian/deposit photos

A study by Immowelt.ch has revealed that some 58% of Swiss citizens are angry at their neighbours for various reasons. 

Noise is the number one cause of anger, with cigarette smoke and pets coming in second and third place respectively. 

Perhaps more surprisingly, garden decorations were listed as the 8th biggest cause of anger between neighbours. 

Higher-earners are less likely to be irritated by neighbours whereas two-thirds of low-income house holds reported problems with neighbours. 

Some 502 people took part in the survey. Blick has more on this.

For members

STRIKES

How German rail and air travel strikes will hit cross-border travel to Switzerland

German train drivers and Lufthansa cabin crew members are set to walk out in strikes this week. Here's how it could affect your travel plans to or from Switzerland.

Published: 11 March 2024 13:29 CET
How German rail and air travel strikes will hit cross-border travel to Switzerland

Not a week has gone by without a strike or two being called in Germany recently. And there’s more misery ahead for passengers as rail and air travel is to be impacted in simultaneous industrial action this week. 

The German GDL Train Drivers’ Union said its latest members’ strike affecting passenger rail services would start at 2am on Tuesday March 12th and last until 2am on Wednesday, March 13th.

For cargo services the strike is set to start a few hours earlier, the union said in a statement.

It comes after a 35-hour train drivers’ strike in Germany last week which paralysed the network on Thursday and part of Friday. It is the union’s sixth walkout since November in the dispute for more pay and fewer working hours. 

The GDL union blamed the latest strike on deadlocked talks with rail operator Deutsche Bahn.

Adding to the chaos, Lufthansa cabin crew are set to walk off the job at Frankfurt airport on Tuesday March 12th, and at Munich airport on Wednesday March 13th in a strike called by the UFO trade union.

The German airline group was already hit by a two-day strike by ground staff last week as the Verdi union demanded higher pay for its members. This action affected hundreds of thousands of passengers. 

How will the latest strike affect air travellers?

If you have a flight booked with Lufthansa to or from Switzerland during the strike, you may be affected. 

You might have already received a message from the airline operator telling you about the strike and the next steps to rebook or to get refunded. 

According to Frankfurt airport’s information page, some flights to Geneva, Basel and Zurich scheduled on Tuesday have already been cancelled, with return flights also affected. 

It was not possible on Monday to see which flights have been cancelled to and from Munich on Wednesday.  

How will the strike affect train passengers?

As you would expect, people in Germany are going to be hit the hardest in the strike affecting passenger services from the early hours of Tuesday until 2am Wednesday.

Although an emergency timetable is usually put in place, around 80 percent of rail services nationwide have been cancelled in previous train drivers’ strikes. 

Long-distance trains and regional transport is disrupted, although the availability of regional services varies between different areas. 

But it’s not only domestic German travel affected – international long-distance services are usually hit too. In previous strikes, four out of five Deutsche Bahn long distance and international trains have been cancelled. 

SBB Deutschland, which operates services in Germany and the cantons of Basel-City and Schaffhausen in Switzerland, said: “The train drivers of SBB Deutschland themselves are not on strike. Nevertheless, operations depend on the dispatchers and other professional groups of the infrastructure operator DB Netz AG as well as their tracks and systems. If they stop working, our trains will also come to a standstill.”

SBB Deutschland said they hope services can run according to the regular timetable but pointed out that special services the operator ran between Freiburg and Basel during previous strikes “cannot be offered due to the short notice”.

Rail operators have urged people to check the status of their connections in advance and if affected to travel on a different date.

You can check strike developments on the SBB’s website here and the Deutsche Bahn website here.

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland beats Germany for reliable trains

What are the strikes about?

As well as salary increases, the GDL Train Drivers’ Union’s key demand is a reduced work week of 35 hours, down from 38 currently, at full pay.

The UFO union is fighting for wage increases for Lufthansa cabin crew members amid rising inflation, and maintains that the offers from management so far are not good enough.

Although Switzerland is used to strong industrial action talking place in neighbouring countries – notably France as well as Germany, the Swiss generally do not have a striking culture.

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