On Thursday, April 28, thousands of preschoolteachers and social workers in NRW went on strike. Additional strike rallies and marches were held in Essen, Dortmund and Cologne respectively.

The union Ver.di called the strikes on Tuesday against the background of upcoming collective bargaining negotiations, the first round of negotiations was March 22 on May 16, it comes to the second round of negotiations. The collective bargaining applies to about 330,000 preschoolteachers and social workers nationwide, who last received a new pay scale in 2015. The workers' demands are quite clear: they want more staff and also more pay. Demands that are more than justified given the workload and an inflation rate of about 6%.

In Essen alone about 3,000 employees of the Kitas and social work gathered around 10 o'clock on the Kennedyplatz in the city center. Apart fromrehearsed Verdi choreographies and dances, one could see in addition, some fighting signs and banners, which were carried there. One banner, for example, read, "Preschool teachers Ready to Fight End of Modesty."" Proletarian revolutionaries showed solidarity with the strikers and distributed there the call of the International Collective of Freiburg for this year's May Day. The strikers accepted the leaflets with joy and discussed it partly in their peer groups still during the rally.

In conversations one hears again and again that the readiness for longer strikes and also for a combative attitude are present. What remains open is the question of whether the negotiating leadership will allow itself to be pulled over the coals and enter into a lazy compromise, or whether it will adopt the attitude of the rank-and-file union members and fight for a good collective agreement. If this is not the case it is necessary to increase the pressure on the union leadership and continue the struggle.