FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Workers at Deutsche Bank’s retail arm Postbank are threatening to stage a strike over a wage dispute, labor union Verdi said on Sunday, ahead of a round of negotiations due to start on Monday.
 "If there is no agreement there could be open-ended strikes,” Verdi’s chief negotiator Jan Duscheck said in a statement, adding that 97.7 percent of balloted workers had voted in favor of industrial action.
Postbank is currently being integrated into Deutsche Bank after Germany’s biggest lender unsuccessfully tried to sell the business, which labor bosses worry could lead to painful cuts.
Verdi is demanding that Postbank extend job guarantees until 2022 and pay around 18,000 workers at Postbank and related units 5 percent more.
Postbank has so far offered an extension of guarantees until 2019 and a 2.5 percent pay hike in two steps. Talks had collapsed last month, but Verdi said earlier this week that Postbank’s management had signalled it would present an improved offer when talks resume on Monday.