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Germany strikes go to mediation
KASSEL, Germany -- Germany's public sector called has in mediators to try to avert a strike by three million workers after pay talks collapsed. All-night talks between government employers and union ended in failure just before dawn on Thursday. The giant Verdi union that represents public sector workers and representatives for government employees said on Thursday they would seek formal arbitration to try to resolve the dispute. If arbitration fails, Germany faces a strike next month by nurses, bus drivers and firefighters. Analysts say such a strike could push Europe's biggest economy back into recession and further hurt Schroeder's slumping popularity just before key state elections. The first arbitration hearing was set for December 28 and will be continued on January 2. Verdi had been seeking a pay rise of more than three percent, in line with the three to four percent increase won by engineering union IG Metall during an 11-day strike this year. Verdi also wants wages for public workers in the east of Germany to be brought into line with west German pay in coming years. Verdi rejected a government offer during Thursday's talks of a 0.9 percent pay rise on January 1, followed by a 1.2 percent increase on October 1, combined with a half-hour increase in weekly working hours to 39 hours in western Germany. The last all-out public sector strike in Germany in 1992 hit the economy hard and was felt across Europe. Refuse and uncollected Christmas trees piling up on German streets in January would increase public discontent ahead of the February state elections in Lower Saxony and Hesse. Public anger at government tax hike plans and its failure to cut unemployment, over four million and rising, could cause landslide defeats for the SPD in two state elections on February 2, cementing the opposition's control of the upper house of parliament and making it harder for Schroeder to govern. German union law forbids strike action during arbitration so that a strike cannot take place until well into January, if the arbitration panel fails to produce a deal. Employers have argued that any pay rise would have to result in redundancies or tax increases, unthinkable at a time of economic growth only just above zero.
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