Karstadt staff conceed wages to keep retailer alive

ESSEN, Germany, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The 28,000 employees at German department store chain Karstadt initially agreed to a plan to reduce wage costs by about 150 million euros ($223.1 million) over three years to prevent a breakup of the company.

On Saturday, German trade union Verdi said it reached a deal with the administrator of Karstadt, a unit of insolvent retailer Arcandor (AROG.DE), that should be formally approved this coming Monday.

Although the administrator, Rolf Weidmann, said he saw a good chance for Karstadt as a whole to survive now that staff made this key contribution to cost reduction, Verdi deputy union leader Margaret Moenig-Raane said 17 of Karstadt's 126 department and athletic wear chain stores were still threatened. (Reporting by Nikola Rotscheroth; editing by Chris Pizzey)