Strike wrests job security guarantees from postal giant

ITF affiliate ver.di has announced the following gains made as a result of the action by tens of thousands of postal workers:

• The agreement on job guarantees for all workers in DP-DHL in Germany is extended until the end of 2019.
• Outsourcing of letter and parcel delivery will be prohibited until the end of 2018.
• All 4,500 workers employed in fixed-term contracts for a total of two years as per 1st July will be granted permanent jobs at DP-DHL.
• All 2015 trainees/apprentices are granted full time employment at DP-DHL when their apprenticeships end.
• In terms of wage negotiations, there is going to be a one-off payment on 1st October 2015, a 2 per cent increase on 1st October 2016 and an additional 1.7 percent increase on 1st October 2017. There will be no new lower wage ‘tier’, and no increase in work time.

Following this victory ver.di has called off the strike and will now focus on building union representation in subsidiary companies such as DHL Delivery

Andrea Kocsis, deputy ver.di president and chief negotiator stated: “We are very content with the outcome. It gives job security and a future to 140,000 ver.di members in DP-DHL. We could not have achieved this without the commitment and dedication of the strikers.”

Ingo Marowsky, ITF global head – supply chain and logistics, praised the resolve of ver.di and the strikers, and the fantastic international solidarity expressed by ITF trade unions. He said he was humbled by the messages the Federation had received back from strikers thanking trade unionists worldwide for their support.