New strike will hit post service

Letters and parcels will sit unprocessed in mail centres across the West Midlands as postal workers go on strike tonight over pay and jobs.

Workers in mail centres and airports begin industrial action for 24 hours from 7pm tonight, followed by action delivery staff on Friday and Saturday. Managers and strike breakers will try to process as much mail as possible.

Special Delivery items will be given priority.

Wolverhampton's Sun Street mail centre will be on reduced staff meaning delivery workers will not have much to take to addresses in the Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and Dudley areas.

Members of the Communication Workers Union have been taking action for weeks after rejecting a 2.5 per cent pay offer and warning that the Royal Mail's modernisation plans will lead to the loss of up to 40,000 jobs.

The union claimed that the first stage of the modernisation plan would be imposed on a large section of the workforce next week, involving "significant" changes including later delivery start times.

These claims have been denied by the Post Office.

Deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: "The imposition represents an unnecessary attack on postal workers' jobs, pay and conditions."

Royal Mail spokesman Jane Thomas said: "Royal Mail will do all it can to mitigate the impact of any CWU strike action, including using management volunteers to keep as much of the mail operation going as possible.

"This is a rolling programme of action involving different parts of Royal Mail's operation on different days over the next week until August 17.

"Deliveries will still take place this Thursday and Friday, as industrial action is not planned at delivery offices until 7pm Friday August 10 to 7pm Saturday August 11, so regrettably it is likely deliveries will be severely disrupted on Saturday."

Mail Centres are due to strike from 7pm on Wednesday August 15 to 7pm Thursday August 16 and delivery offices are striking from 7pm Thursday August 16 to 7pm Friday August 17.

By Daniel Wainwright