Germany braced for staff walkouts

A WAVE of strikes in Germany this week may be about to hinder the nation's recently sighted fragile economic recovery. Some 4,000 postal workers walked out on Monday in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. 'If there isn't a breakthrough, Germany will have to brace for a long strike,' said Rolf Buttner, who represents postal staff in the ver.di service union, which has 2.9m members.

Other threatened strikes by ver.di members in the insurance industry could bring 20,000 people out on Thursday and Friday and there is trouble in the building trade, with several thousand workers in that sector due to down tools on Friday.

The IG Bau construction workers' union is pushing for a 4.5% annual rise and for wages in the east to be brought up to levels paid in western Germany. But there is a hardening of attitude among employers, regretting their settlement with the IG Metall industrial union of around 4%. An Employer's Association spokesman said: 'There simply isn't the money in the pot.' Some 40,000 small to medium sized German firms are expected to go to the wall this year.