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In the pay dispute at Deutsche Post, the Ver.di union has extended its warning strikes. In eleven federal states, workers have stopped working, a spokesman said. According to him, around 3,100 postal workers participated in the strike in the afternoon. The warning strike will continue on Friday.
According to the Post, the transport of around 1.3 million letters and 130,000 packages was affected by the warning strike at noon. That’s 2.4 and 2.5 percent of the daily amount, a spokesperson said. In the regions most affected by the alert strikes, delayed shipments would be delivered in the following days.
The consequences of the strike were, therefore, more noticeable than on Wednesday. On the first day of the warning strikes, the Swiss Post spoke of around 265,000 affected letters and 8,000 packages and described the effects as “manageable”.
The union demands 5.5 percent more salary
Ver.di started the warning strikes on Wednesday. The union wants to emphasize its demand for revenue increases for the approximately 140,000 Post Office employees by 5.5 percent. Ver.di justified the demand with the good commercial situation of the post office. During negotiations thus far, the union had gotten the impression that the post office only wanted to offer revenue improvements of 1.5 percent. The company intends to submit an offer in the next round of negotiations on September 21-22. A disproportionate increase is conceivable for the lowest wage groups, said personnel director Thomas Ogilvie.
According to Ver.di, the main strikes were distribution centers, parcel bases and delivery centers. Delivery was also affected. There were campaigns in the federal states of Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin.
In Lower Saxony, according to Ver.di, at least 1,400 employees should participate and stop working in two waves during the day. In Hamburg it was possible to avoid the delivery of up to 16,000 packages, said Ver.di’s department head Lars-Uwe Rieck.
A Ver.di spokesperson in North Rhine-Westphalia responded to fears that warning strikes could hamper return of mail-in ballots in local elections. Delays in letter delivery are quickly made up for. In addition, the emptying of the mailboxes was not on strike. Regarding voting by mail, the postal spokesperson stressed that “an attempt will be made to avoid any damage caused by the strikes.” In NRW, local parliaments, mayors and district administrators are elected on Sunday.
