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Germany: Opposition grows against Commerzbank-Deutsche Bank merger

By  |  April 4, 2019

According to the Financial times, 250 Commerzbank staff gathered in central Stuttgart, brandishing placards in protest against the lender’s talks to merge with its rival Deutsche Bank. “We are convinced that we can thwart the merger,” Stefan Wittmann, a union representative and member of Commerzbank’s supervisory board, said at the protest.

Led by Germany’s 2m-member service sector union Verdi, the 78,000 domestic employees of both lenders are cranking up resistance to a deal that could put almost half of those jobs on the line.

Due to the crucial role unions play in Germany’s consensus-driven corporate culture, the workers’ protests are more than merely background noise to a transformative deal that would create the eurozone’s second-biggest bank with €1.8tn in assets and €845bn of deposits.

Over the coming days, Verdi will stage one-day walkouts in all major German cities including Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne. Formally, the temporary strikes are about the unresolved wage negotiations in the sector, according to the FT.

Full Content: Financial Times

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