BERLIN/BONN (dpa-AFX) - Warning strikes by postal workers again slowed down the delivery of around one million letters and several hundred thousand parcels on Monday. Overall, however, the impact was less than during the warning strikes in January, which lasted several days, reported a spokesman for Deutsche Post in Bonn. The union wants to use the work stoppages in the current round of collective bargaining to emphasize its demand for 15 percent more pay. The warning strikes are expected to continue on Tuesday.

Verdi head Frank Werneke defended his union's demand at a rally in Berlin in front of several hundred strikers. "Anyone who thinks that the demand of 15 percent is too high simply cannot do math," Werneke shouted to strikers from Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. He said inflation of almost eight percent last year and six to seven percent this year meant big real wage losses.

"We want to stop the inflation monster, we want to secure real wages - because we have earned that," the unionist said.

All people have a right to a full refrigerator and a heated apartment, he said. "The alternative, starve or freeze, we don't accept that alternative."

Verdi negotiator Andrea Kocsis pointed out that the Post was currently raking in record profits. "We're going to take your share of that now," she called out to the strikers. "Now it's your turn before we talk about dividends."

At the Post, however, the union's actions were met with incomprehension. A company spokesman said the group had already announced an offer for the next round of collective bargaining on Wednesday and Thursday. The new warning strikes were therefore excessive. The union's behavior was detrimental to the Group's customers.

At the same time, the company tried to dampen the expectations of the strikers. In order to secure jobs in the mail and parcel business, income increases on the scale demanded by Verdi were "not justifiable," the Group reiterated. The earnings of the mail and parcel business are clearly declining and are already no longer sufficient for the necessary investments. The Group profit cited by Verdi is largely generated in the international business.

Verdi spoke of 8,000 strike participants, the Post of around 5,300 employees who had taken part in the work stoppages. Overall, however, the effects of the new warning strike were initially limited, according to the company. Due to the typically low volume of shipments at the beginning of the week, "only about 6 percent of the average daily volume of parcel shipments and only about 2 percent of the average daily volume of letter shipments were affected nationwide on Monday," the postal spokesman reported. There had already been warning strikes on several days in January.

On Monday, the warning strikes focused on Berlin and Rostock, among other cities. For Tuesday, Verdi also announced protest rallies in Dortmund, Hamburg, Saarbrücken, Polch (Rhineland-Palatinate), Nuremberg, Frankfurt/Main and Stuttgart./nif/rea/DP/stw