Some 30,000 Deutsche Post staff protested in Berlin on Monday to support demands for the company’sdomestic monopoly to be extended beyond this year. Deutsche Post’s exclusive licence for letters
weighing less than 50g is due to expire on December 31, 2007.The Verdi union, which represents the vast majority of Deutsche Post’s mail staff, claimedthat 30,000 employees from across the country had turned out in the German capital. Andreas Kocsis,head of the union’s postal section, called for EU postal markets to be liberalised at the sametime, for the introduction of minimum pay levels and compulsory social standards.
The European Commission has proposed fully liberalising all EU domestic postal markets in2009 while protecting the universal service obligation. EU ministers are due to discuss the plan inearly June.
