Germany - Union delivers postie pay rise after marathon talk

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Union delivers postie pay rise after marathon talks

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Germany's biggest workers' union bagged higher wages for postal workers on Friday after a marathon 20-hour meeting. The agreement comes after country-wide post strikes disrupted deliveries last week.

The details are yet to be confirmed, but 132,000 staff at Deutsche Post – Germany's postal service provider – will get pay rises, a spokesman from public service union Verdi confirmed, after talks ended early on Friday morning.

Verdi called post workers to strike last Wednesday, leaving millions of letters and parcels undelivered as employees fought for a 6 percent pay increase which would deliver at least €140 more each month.

Those on strike were mostly delivery staff but Verdi warned that if its demands were not heard, further strikes could involve those working in other sections of the company.

Wednesday's action saw, in North Rhine-Westphalia alone, around 600 posties not turning up for work, leaving at least one million letters and packets undelivered, a spokesman from the state's post office confirmed on the day.

In Berlin and Baden-Württemberg, 500 stayed away, while the 300 missing letter carriers in the central state of Hesse meant 600,000 missives were not delivered.

[silly suffolk]

was general Mannerheim involved in the negotiations? he likes to help the Germans.