By Erich Reimann and Katharina Redanz, dpa
HAMBURG – The nationwide strikes at the German postal service Deutsche Post were continuing on Tuesday. Protest rallies were planned in Dortmund, Hamburg, Saarbrücken, Polch in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, the trade union Verdi announced.
With the walkouts, the union wants to press its demand for a 15% wage increase in the current round of collective bargaining for the approximately 160,000 employees in the post and parcel sector.
“Our members are taking to the streets because they simply cannot afford a loss in purchasing power,” said Verdi negotiator Andrea Kocsis, blaming Germany’s high inflation rate.
According to the union, about 8,000 postal workers stopped work on Monday. According to the post office, the delivery of about 1 million letters and several hundred thousand parcels was slowed down.
The strikes were “a crystal-clear signal to the employers: The workers are ready to fight for their demands and now expect a round of negotiations that ends with a substantial salary increase,” Kocsis said. The board of Deutsche Post rejects the demand as unrealistic.
The negotiations are expected to continue in a third round on Wednesday and Thursday in Dusseldorf. The post office has announced that it will present an offer then. There had already been several days of strikes in January.
An opinion poll published on Tuesday suggests that more than half of people in Germany consider the strikes to be justified.
According to the survey, which was carried out by the opinion research institute Yougov, 58% of those questioned on Monday said they understood the postal workers’ work stoppage on that day. According to the data, 34% had no understanding and 8% did not give an answer.
