Mail delivery strikes on April 1, 2008

Don't be surprised if you don't receive any mail today as the non-Beamte (civil servant) delivery personnel is on strike (German link) in the greater Munich area and in 13 other large cities. The union, ver.di, and the Deutsche Post are in collective agreement negotiations, mostly regarding a freeze on firing due to the restructural measures in force since today, such as a 41-hour work week as opposed to 38.5 hours. ver.di is concerned that the Deutsche Post will take advantage of each employee's higher work load to make several hundred employees redundant.

Time to switch to a 100% email-based society. Make all the postal workers redundant.

I'm open to anything that avoids Deutsche Post.

I'd like to see you send a parcel by e-mail!

or documents requiring original signatures...

The Germans seem to strike more than the French. maybe I just dont pay enough attention to French news

Hermes are such angels that their lorries actually fly!

We're in the 21st century. A digital signature should be enough.

You guys are just trying to put notaries out of a job.
*How do I seal an e-mail with a kiss?*

You sign off with SWALC (Sealed With A Loving Click!)

Phew, that was close. My mail arrived at 10 this morning

Our postie brought the mail earlier than usual today and had a trainee with him.

just means more mail for them to carry tomorrow.

I would never send something like that by mail anyway. That's what we have couriers for.

I say go ahead and strike, prove how redundant you are.

That's the daft thing.
It's not as if they have a lot of leverage, unlike the train drivers.

Berlin postal workers are obviously showing solidarity; everyone's mail arrived smushed and torn beyond recognition today.

my mail came...at a decent time & everything...which is weird.

I am pretty sure they have people working the shifts for the mailmen that are on strike. (Like my brother, he works around 50 hours a week at the moment, he's a student but works at the DP as a mailman, usually just on Saturdays but at the moment, with school break it's every day. And as far as I know he works the shifts for people who are sick etc. so probably for those on strike as well. And there are definitely others beside my brother doing that kind of job.)

SCAB!