Deutsche Post warning strikes again
The giant services sector union Ver.di extended warning strikes at the semi-privatised German postal authority, Deutsche Post, on Wednesday, with employees at letter-sorting centres in Berlin, Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg staging walkouts in pursuit of their current wage claims.
Some 2,000 employees took part in the action, which left around 17 million letters and parcels unhandled and would lead to delays in delivery in the three regions, Ver.di said.
The union threatened to extend the rolling strike action to other areas during the course of the day.
In the current wage dispute, Ver.di is calling for wage increases of 6.5 percent for around 160,000 of Deutsche Post’s 240,000-strong workforce.
The other 80,000 employees are not affected because they are classified as civil servants in the semi-privatised company’s pay structure.
Deutsche Post’s management has yet to table a concrete offer, but has dismissed the union’s demands as “unrealistic”.
“The aim of our action is to reach an agreeable offer at the negotiating table on June 10,” said Ver.di board member Rolf Buettner.
“This will only be achieved if employers give up their blocking tactics and move substantially towards us.”
Ver.di said that around 220 drivers and postal delivery workers had stopped work overnight in Dresden and Leipzig, leaving around three million letters and parcels undelivered.
And around 1,000 employees took part in action in Freiburg, Goeppingen, Heilbronn, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Offenburg, Ravensburg, Reutlingen, Pforzheim, Stuttgart and Villingen-Schwenningen, the union added.
