It looked like a strike at the post office, but things turned out differently. Now the thread of the conversation between the parties to the collective bargaining agreement is to be resumed. The Verdi union continues to threaten.
The Verdi union is keeping the pressure on in the collective bargaining dispute at Swiss Post. If the group does not move in the fourth round of negotiations and does not “submit a materially significantly improved offer, we will go on strike next week,” said Andreas Henze, the state department head of Verdi Baden-Württemberg, the German Press Agency. He is a member of the union’s bargaining committee.
Today Verdi and the Post want to return to the negotiating table, the fourth round of talks in Düsseldorf should last until Saturday. Verdi is demanding a 15 percent increase in fees, which Post considers to be economically unviable.
Strike: expensive thing for the post office
According to Verdi, in a ballot in the Post and Parcel Germany division, 85.9 percent of those surveyed opposed the company’s tariff offer and declared their willingness to go on an indefinite strike. This had only happened once for the logistician in this millennium, namely in 2015 – at that time the consequences were massive, many consumers had to wait a long time for packages and letters that were left behind.
It would probably be the same this time. The strike would be expensive for Swiss Post, as it would probably have to pay for external storage capacity. In 2015, she had estimated the strike costs at 100 million euros.
Tariff increase for 160,000 employees
After the result of the ballot was known on Thursday, the union could actually have called for a strike. For the time being, however, she refrained from doing so and instead complied with the employer’s request to return to the negotiating table. Trade unionist Henze said: “It’s up to the post office to move so that the collective bargaining conflict can be ended.”
The Post has so far offered a tariff increase of an average of 11.5 percent from 2024 in two steps, and from this year there should also be 3,000 euros net as inflation compensation. The company wants the new collective agreement to run for two years. Verdi, on the other hand, is only planning a one-year term at 15 percent plus. The tariff increase would apply to around 160,000 employees, namely postmen, parcel couriers and other domestic workers.
Source: Stern
