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Thousands of service workers on strike across Germany

BERLIN - Kindergartens, city halls and swimming pools remained closed across Germany on Tuesday as thousands of employees in the public sector staged walkouts to enforce their demand for an 8 percent pay increase, the country’s ver.di service workers’ union said.

In Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, about 16,000 workers in local government offices, sanitation, banks, theaters and public swimming pools went on strike. Several thousand people were expected to participate in a ver.di rally in Dortmund later on Tuesday.

The strikes started as early as 6 a.m. and were scheduled to last all day.

The atmosphere is good, the people are willing to fight,’ Rudolf Timmermann, the head of ver.di in Schleswig-Holstein, said, adding that about 2,000 workers participated in rallies and walkouts in the northern state.

In the southern state of Bavaria, the union said that about 2,000 workers in more than 50 public institutions were expected to not show up for work.

So far, I have only received partial confirmations but it looks like we will reach our goal or, more likely, even exceed it,’ said Norbert Flach, ver.di’s coordinator for wage issues in Bavaria.

In Berlin and other cities across the nation, kindergarten teachers stayed at home. Members of the police union planned to strike in Berlin as well, while 600 civilian employees of the German army staged walkouts in the western state of Saarland.

The union, which counts some 1.3 million public sector employees, cites rising consumer prices and the fact that workers have seen the real value of their wages fall in recent years as the reason for seeking the wage rise.

Talks began last month but have yet to make any progress.

Local governments have not ruled out a wage increase, but want to link any raise to an extension of the standard working week from the current 38 hours to 40 hours.

An upturn in Germany’s economy _ Europe’s biggest _ after years of stagnation has led to increased calls in wage talks this year for big increases.

The IG Metall industrial union is also seeking an 8 percent increase for its members, citing what it called fat’ profits among steelmakers. Employers have said such an increase would be too high.

Economists argue, however, that any wage hikes could augment annual inflation in the euro zone, which hit 3.2 percent last month, worrying the European Central Bank.