Trade union ver.di announced on Thursday evening that workers at Deutsche Post would carry out an immediate strike ahead of a third round of pay rise discussions in February.
Deutsche Post workers have announced that they will carry out a nationwide strike over the coming days. The strike, which already began on Thursday evening, is expected to last until at least Monday, meaning that people in Germany will be kept waiting for their packages, letters and parcels this weekend.
On February 8, union representatives from ver.di are set to re-enter negotiations asking for a 15 percent employee pay rise. The strike comes after two previous bargaining rounds in the dispute between the 160.000 Deutsche Post workers represented by ver.di and Deutsche Post AG did not result in a pay rise. According to ver.di, many Deutsche Post employees are currently underpaid and cannot cope with real wage losses.
In a statement on the ver.di website, chairperson Andrea Kocsis wrote, “The employers have made it very clear that they are not prepared to compensate for the loss of real wages and inflation. They say this is not affordable. This view is not acceptable to us. Apparently the facts do not count for the employers. Our collective bargaining demands are necessary, fair and feasible.”
According to ver.di, Deutsche Post employee wages are separated into bands, ranging from 1 to 3, which equate to salaries of between 2.108 euros and 3.090 euros per month before taxes.
The last pay rise negotiated by Ver.di saw employees receive a 2 percent increase in January 2022, before inflation in Germany reached pre-war highs.
Deutsche Post is an international company and employs around 590.000 people worldwide. Over the course of 2022 the letter and parcel delivery company made a profit of 8,4 billion euros.
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