Postal workers delay strike over pay hike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.wbj.pl/?command=article&id=40880

A strike by the labor unions of state-owned postal services company Poczta Polska was narrowly averted last week

The unions had threatened a walkout, scheduled for this Monday, in order to press for a zł.700 gross general pay raise. The planned work stoppage was timed to coincide with tax season.

The unions have said that the strike could go ahead on May 5 if their demands are not met.

"Unless we get the raise, we will stage a walkout," Bogumił Nowicki of the NSZZ Solidarno�ć labor union told the press. As many as 80 percent of Poczta Polska workers support the strike, according to the unions.

Poczta Polska, the largest postal operator in Poland, employs 100,000 people. According to the labor unions, 70 percent of those employees earn less than zł.2,400 gross a month.

Meeting the unions' demands, however, would require additional expenditures of zł.72 million annually. Management is offering a zł.500 gross raise, claiming that anything larger would affect the financial stability of the institution.

A strike could damage Poczta Polska's relations with its clients - institutional clients above all - as these could decide to take their business to private post firms. But labor union activists believe that the firms' clients will return after the strike since no other postal service has as much shipping capacity as Poczta Polska.

"Nobody is powerful enough to replace us," Nowicki wrote in an official statement