How warning strikes are affecting Germany's postal service and daycare centres
Deutsche Post parcel centres across the country were closed through the evening and night shifts on Tuesday until Wednesday morning due to the latest warning strike called by the Verdi trade union.
Employees in some regions will continue the strike through the day shifts on Wednesday. These strikes are occurring at selected parcel centres in: Freiburg, Pforzheim and Waiblingen in Baden-Württemberg, as well as in Celle and Göttingen in Lower Saxony, and in Bremen.
Meanwhile in Cologne, municipal daycare centres are affected today as workers their have also walked out as part of a Verdi warning strike.
Deutsche Post and DHL customers can expect that mail and parcels could be slightly delayed everywhere due to the overnight strikes, and could be more seriously delayed in regions where the strikes are continuing.
This round of warning strikes comes as the union continues with negotiations for higher pay and more vacation time for postal workers.
For postmen, parcel carriers and other DHL logistics employees the union is demanding a wage increase of seven percent and three extra vacation days each year.
The postal service company has so far offered a 1.8 percent salary increase for the next 27 month contract, followed by a two percent increase later. It's also offered one additional day of vacation for those workers who have less than 30 per year (about two-thirds of employees).
So far three bargaining rounds have not brought agreeable results. The next meeting between the union and employer representatives is set for Monday.
Public sector strikes hit Kitas and city services
Beside the postal service, Verdi has been organising a series of strikes among different groups of public sector workers.
On Wednesday, many parents in Cologne have been affected by strikes by all employees at the city's 212 municipal nursery schools, or Kitas.
City administration officials have said that many Kitas can be expected to close, or offer very limited care.
According to a report by local news outlet Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the timing of this strike has caused outrage among some parents as it comes ehad of Weiberfastnacht, a Carnival celebration in which children were to present long rehearsed performances.
This week Cologne city administration workers had also walked out on Monday, as well as workers at a more limited group of Kitas.
Also striking on Wednesday are the stages of the city of Cologne, which comprises the opera, dance hall and theatre, the Cologne Jobcenter, the Federal Employment Agency and the Cologne Baths.
Similar Kita strikes are taking place in other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia such as Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Eschweiler. In Essen there are also further city administration strikes which may affect the city library, youth welfare and youth vocational assistance programs, and schools.
Then on Thursday, numerous Kitas in Stuttgart will be closed, according to a report in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper.
According to the city of Stuttgart, about 80 percent of the facilities will remain closed on strike days - Affected Kitas should inform parents ahead of the strike.
Daycare centres in the eastern city of Chemnitz are also to be affected by strikes on Thursday, but the city has said it will not pre-emptively close any facilities as a precaution.
Verdi's demands for all of these employees, which belong to collective bargaining agreements for public sector workers, is an eight percent raise or €350 more per month as well as three additional days off.
Public sector strikes have also affected air travel this week. Warning strikes at Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf airports caused a number of flight cancellations on Monday. A two day strike at Munich airport is also planned to begin Thursday.
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