DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - Employees at Deutsche Post's mail and parcel centers in North Rhine-Westphalia walked off the job late Thursday night. The Verdi trade union had called on employees at all distribution centers to go on a day-long warning strike starting at 10 p.m., after the second round of collective bargaining for the roughly 160,000 employees ended without a result. "Participation was already very good during the night. Very many colleagues are joining in," reported Thomas Großstück, Verdi spokesman for NRW, early Friday morning. Exact figures on participation are not yet available, he said.

According to the spokesman, strike locations have been set up in Dortmund and Cologne as contact points for the employees. Several hundred employees are expected to gather at these locations during the course of the day. Larger demonstrations in front of the distribution centers were not planned for the time being.

Verdi has already announced further walkouts for the following days. The union is demanding 15 percent more pay. The majority of Verdi members at the Post have low incomes and cannot cope with real wage losses, the employee representatives argue.

The company rejects the demand. The assumption that wage increases can be passed on through price increases is wrong, they say. Swiss Post refers to the price regulation for the letter and parcel business in Germany./rgr/DP/stk