Austrian postal workers demonstrate against planned break-up

Dozens of postal workers’ representatives demonstrated on Tuesday against a planned splitting up of the Post Office into five separate companies. There was meanwhile a top-level meeting of union officials. The demonstrators, mostly wearing suits and ties, and filing in an orderly procession, warned of the possib- ility of strikes. Union spokesmen say the Post Office is closing 638 branch offices, mostly in small villages, this year. They fear that the management’s plan to create five separate firms will lose 11,000 of the present 30,000 jobs. There will also be an additional cost of 250 million euros, they charge.