European Central Bank staff stage first strike

* ECB staff stage first strike in bank's 10-year history

* Staff angry at lack of say on pay and conditions

* ECB says operations unaffected (Adds details of strike, quotes)

By Marc Jones

FRANKFURT, June 3 (Reuters) - European Central Bank staff, waving protest placards to the beat of African drummers, on Wednesday staged the first strike in the bank's 10-year history, the day before a critical monetary policy meeting.

Around 300 of the ECB's 1,500 workers from many countries took part in the 1-1/2-hour work stoppage, brandishing banners slamming ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet and blowing whistles to protest what they see as a lack of say in pay discussions and recent pension and benefit changes.

"We want to have a say and we want to have negotiations," said Adrian Petty, head of The International and European Public Services Organisation (Ipso), the staff trade union organising the protest.

Petty said Trichet "needs to change his attitude. In terms of internal employment policy he has failed."

Ipso is angry about the staff's lack of influence in pay and benefit talks, and estimates that recent changes to pension contributions and employment terms, including incentives for early retirement, will reduce benefits as much as 15 percent.

The ECB says it has been involved in meetings about the pension and benefit changes for two years and that European law says only the bank's top management can make pay decisions.

It said backup measures were put in place to ensure the strike did not affect operations and no problems occurred.

PROTEST MEET TO THE BEAT

Despite the carnival atmosphere provided by the African drummers and party whistles, staff were clearly bitter.

"The fact is no one likes being treated like shit, and that is what we have been treated like," said one ECB staff member who did not want to be named for fear of repercussions. "They have acted really arrogantly in my opinion."

Another warned that it could hurt the bank's vital monetary policy role. The bank sets benchmark interest rates for the 16 countries that use the euro as their currency.

"This is not about monetary policy but I really think this is now going to have an effect on monetary policy," he said.

"It will impact the information flow in the bank, there are tensions there. People who are angry will not pass information and it won't go from the bottom up to the top."

Ipso's Petty said the strikers only wanted a voice in future decisions on pay and working issues.

"We do not want to influence (Trichet's) monetary policy, we are only interested in his employment policy," he told the protesters by megaphone.

After an hour demonstrating outside the ECB, they marched around Frankfurt's main financial district, trailed by a police escort.

The walkout was held the day before a meeting when the ECB is expected to detail plans for its first asset purchase programme, as well as keep interest rates at a record low to try to pull the euro zone economy out of recession. [ECB/INT]

Some policymakers arrived for the meeting as staff were in the final stages of their march around nearby streets.

Austrian central bank chief Ewald Nowotny turned up alongside Slovakia's Ivan Sramko, shortly before Belgium's Guy Quaden arrived to a background of whistles and drums.

The row has become increasingly bitter. Staff were told in a letter that Trichet and the rest of the ECB Executive Board had decided to dock the pay of any striking staff during the protest, the first strike in the ECB's 10-year history.

Strikes at central banks are rare. The U.S. Federal Reserve has no record of any while the last industrial dispute at the Bank of England was by junior print staff in 1912 over the recording of working hours.