ECB staff stage first-ever strike

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2009

FRANKFURT (AFP) — Around a fifth of the staff working at the European Central Bank (ECB) walked out on Wednesday to stage the bank's first-ever strike, one day ahead of the bank's key rate-setting meeting.

Some 300 employees gathered at 1400 GMT at the foot at the Eurotower, the ECB's skyscraping headquarters in Frankfurt, armed with blue umbrellas, EU flags, drums and whistles for the 90-minute warning strike.

The action -- called by the ECB's Ipso union -- sought to draw attention to workers' demands for better pension rights and to what they describe as a "democratic deficit" at the bank.

"At the moment, the management's logic is 'we listen to you and then we ignore you.' This is not worthy of a European institution," said one striker.

Ipso boss Adrian...