Workers at Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG began strike action today in protest at management plans to outsource thousands of jobs in a major cost-cutting programme. The service sector union Ver.di said 10,000 of the company's 160,000 employees in Germany took part in the industrial action at selected sites across the country. The first workers walked off their jobs at 6 am, plunging Europe's largest telecoms company into its biggest union battle since it was privatized 12 years ago. Ver.di said a ballot of 20,000 Telekom employees showed 96.5 per cent in favour of a strike over the company's plans to shift 50,000 workers to a new service company at reduced wages. The strike call followed the breakdown of talks between the union and Telekom, which is struggling to boost earnings and competitiveness in the face of fierce competition in its domestic German market. -- SPA
