BERLIN (AFP) — Germany's Verdi trade union Saturday called an open-ended strike for May 2 at mail service and logistics provider Deutsche Post after a fourth round of talks with management broke down overnight.
Verdi said details of the action would be ironed out at meetings at the end of next week.
Deutsche Post's head of personnel, Walter Scheurle, said in a statement earlier that it was prepared to continue talks provided that Verdi dropped a demand for no increase in working hours.
Scheurle said Verdi must make concessions to maintain the group's competitiveness, but union spokesman Guenther Isemeyer called the management's stance "a deliberate incitement to conflict."
Verdi is also calling for a seven percent pay increase and a guarantee of employment for Deutsche Post's 133,000 workers until 2011.
Deutsche Post is offering 5.5 percent for the next two years and the job guarantees, but says employees must put in an extra half-hour a week.
In a separate action, Verdi also called for a weekend strike in the bus, metro and tram workshops of the Berlin city transport system, as well as vehicle refuelling and cleaning.
Negotiations with the Berliner Verkehrsbetrieben (BVG) ended without agreement after 12 hours, with the union demanding a pay rise of up between three and nine percent for the 12,000 employees, and the management offering from three to four percent.
BVG was already hit by a strike at the beginning of March which lasted more than a week.
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