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11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

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‘Don’t cut costs at the expense of traffic wardens’

14 March 2008 - Municipality and districts want to save one million euro by partly privatising the Stadstoezicht Department and having traffic wardens covered by a cheaper collective agreement. PvdA ZuiderAmstel intends to foil this plan.

Last week, forty traffic wardens handed out geraniums to city council members as a protest against the plans. They are afraid that their conditions of employment will deteriorate or that they will be forced to ‘sit behind the geraniums’ - a Dutch expression meaning to sit at home doing nothing.

Municipality and districts want to cut costs because Stadstoezicht’s costs have risen, partly as a result of the welfare agency (DWI) being unable to provide sufficient employees with subsidised jobs. DWI itself wants to cut costs and therefore tries to reduce the number of people with subsidised jobs.

District council member Daniel García Soto (PvdA) from ZuiderAmstel says the cuts must not be carried out at the expense of the traffic wardens. He wants a guarantee that current staff will be employed by the new organisation without their conditions of employment deteriorating.

García Soto received broad support in the district council, but not from the VVD. “Only recently, the VVD had a lot to say about people with low income suffering as a result of the municipal car policy, but their social concern now seems to have vanished”, García Soto said.

He is going to approach colleagues in other districts to see whether they are willing to join ZuiderAmstel in its decision.

In February, alderwoman Carolien Gehrels invited district politicians for drinks to celebrate the privatisation of the traffic wardens, at a time when the decision to do so still had to be made. Responding to questions from Maureen van der Pligt (SP), she said such a celebration was not inappropriate. “The Stadstoezicht Department is going through great changes. The proper procedures are being followed”.

Image: Alderwoman Gehrels receives a geranium as well (photo SP)

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