German union calls for strike at Deutsche Post

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7473405

DUESSELDORF, Germany, April 19 (Reuters) - German trade union Verdi urged postal workers on Saturday to strike from early next month after the collapse of wage talks with Deutsche Post .

The talks, where the union was demanding a 7 percent pay rise, broke down as a European Central Bank policymaker warned the bank might have to consider raising euro zone interest rates if pay awards stoked inflation.

Verdi deputy chief Andrea Kocsis said the union's wage commission had agreed the talks over wages and working conditions for 130,000 postal workers had failed and that the union would ballot workers on striking from May 2.

"The workers are fed up and they will impress that on Deutsche Post AG in the coming days," Kocsis told a news conference.

The wage talks broke down overnight after the employers made a new offer which fell short of the union's demands. The two sides were also negotiating working hours and job protection.

"Deutsche Post is keeping its positive attitude and remains absolutely ready for talks," said the postal and logistics group's chief negotiator, Walter Scheurle, who is also personnel director.

Separately, Verdi called immediate strikes at public transport workshops and garages in Berlin after wage talks collapsed. The union did not immediately plan to disrupt public transport services with the industrial action.

Dubbed a "mega wage year" by Germany's biggest industrial union, 2008 has already delivered the biggest pay rises in 16 years for the public sector and steel workers.

In the last two years, Germany has enjoyed its strongest burst of economic activity since reunification in 1990 and workers want a greater share of the success after years of wage moderation that helped boost firms' profitability.

However, the ECB is worried that surging energy and food prices will feed a wage-price spiral. Euro zone inflation hit a new high of 3.6 percent in March, well above the ECB's target of just below 2 percent.

ECB Governing Council member Axel Weber said in a newspaper interview released on Saturday that if there were growing signs of wages and fiscal policy feeding inflation, "we must react with interest rate policy".

The ECB has kept interest rates at 4 percent for the last 10 months, while the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada -- worried about how hard a credit crisis may hit the world economy -- have all cut their benchmark rates.