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Post employees are on strike in eleven federal states - like here in Hanover
Photo: Moritz Frankenberg / dpa
In the wage dispute at Deutsche Post, the Ver.di union has expanded its warning strikes.
In eleven federal states, workers have stopped work, said a spokesman.
According to him, around 3,100 postal workers took part in the strike by the afternoon.
The warning strike is to continue on Friday.
According to the Post, the transport of around 1.3 million letters and 130,000 parcels were affected by the warning strike by noon.
That is 2.4 and 2.5 percent of the daily amount, said a spokesman.
In the regions more affected by the warning strikes, the delayed shipments would be delivered in the following days.
The consequences of the strike were thus more noticeable than on Wednesday.
On the first day of the warning strikes, Swiss Post spoke of around 265,000 affected letters and 8,000 parcels and described the effects as "manageable".
Union demands 5.5 percent more salary
Ver.di started the warning strikes on Wednesday.
The union wants to emphasize its demand for income increases for the approximately 140,000 employees of the Post by 5.5 percent.
Ver.di justified the demand with the good business situation of the Post, among other things.
During the negotiations so far, the union had gained the impression that the post office only wanted to offer income improvements of 1.5 percent.
The company intends to submit an offer at the next round of negotiations on September 21 and 22.
A disproportionate increase for the lower wage groups is conceivable, said Personnel Director Thomas Ogilvie.
According to Ver.di, the main strikes were distribution centers, parcel bases and delivery centers.
The delivery was also affected.
There were campaigns in the federal states of Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin.
In Lower Saxony, according to Ver.di, at least 1,400 employees should take part and stop work in two waves during the day.
In Hamburg it was possible to prevent the delivery of up to 16,000 parcels, said the Ver.di department head there, Lars-Uwe Rieck.
A Ver.di spokesman in North Rhine-Westphalia countered fears that the warning strikes could hinder the return of postal votes in local elections.
Delays in the delivery of letters are quickly made up.
In addition, the emptying of the mailboxes was not on strike.
With regard to the postal vote, the postal spokesman emphasized that one would "try to prevent any impairment caused by the strikes".
In NRW, local parliaments, mayors and district administrators are elected on Sunday.
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kfr / dpa
