Labour Day Marches Focus on Rents as Much as Pay

ZURICH - First of May marches in the large cities mixed the usual union columns with tenant groups. Speakers said the 2024-25 wage round looked decent on paper until the rent landed. In Geneva and Lausanne the same sentence was spoken in French.

Police in Zurich counted a large but peaceful crowd. A few flares in the evening were the exception that makes the television edit.

A demand without a single office

Housing policy sits with communes and cantons. Wage policy sits with collective contracts. The march tried to hold both in one chant, which is good politics and hard law. The tension is still there in our later vacancy report.