Commerzbank Staff Ratchets Up Opposition to Deutsche Bank Merger

(Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG employees on Wednesday came out in force against a potential merger with cross-town rival Deutsche Bank AG.

The bank’s works council “protests against your plan to merge with Deutsche Bank,” the staff representatives said in a letter sent to the management board that’s been seen by Bloomberg. “We believe you’re plunging into an uncontrollable adventure without a recognizable plan, without a vision and without any backing.”

Some clients are already upset about the merger plan and want to ditch the bank, the works council says in the letter.

The latest protest adds to a crescendo of voices calling on the management boards of the two banks to end the talks about a potential tie-up announced 10 days ago. While labor representatives fearing tens of thousands of job cuts in a merger have perhaps been the most vocal, they have not been the only critics. Prominent economists and even some key shareholders have also expressed skepticism.

‘Size Matters’

Deutsche Bank plans to give an update on the talks by April 26, Supervisory Board Chairman Paul Achleitner said earlier Wednesday. “Size matters” for banks, he said, while declining to comment on the merger specifically. The banks have said the outcome of their talks is open.

The Commerzbank works council, led by supervisory board member Uwe Tschaege, on Wednesday accused the executives of “walking away” from an agreement made a couple of years ago that presumably paved the way for thousands of job cuts at the bank.

Similarly, some of Deutsche Bank’s labor representatives have previously threatened to block the current negotiations with the bank’s management about cutting jobs if the lender goes ahead with the merger. Deutsche Bank last year completed the legal merger of its two previously separate domestic retail units and, as a result, it expects to save 900 million euros ($1 billion) annually in synergies in a few years.

Both banks are currently locked in wage negotiations with ver.di, Germany’s second-largest labor union. The union will use planned warning strikes as a tool to ram home its opposition to the potential deal, the union’s banking expert and Deutsche Bank supervisory board member Jan Duscheck said in an email Monday.

Duscheck answered “no” when asked if there are any conceivable conditions such as job guarantees under which ver.di might assent to the merger. The deal wouldn’t “create a business model that holds in a long-term view and thus secures jobs,” he wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Arons in Frankfurt at sarons@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman, Ross Larsen

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