Posties on the picket line

Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and network drivers launched a 24-hour strike from 4am, while 78,000 delivery and collection workers will walk out tomorrow.

It means disrupted mail for several days as deliveries are cancelled and workers then work through the backlog.

Pickets who assembled at the West Midlands' two main sorting offices today waved banners and flags.

At Birmingham's Royal Mail sorting office in Newtown workers set up pickets at the front and the back of the business. Around 1,100 indoor mail sorting workers and drivers at the site were set to strike today followed by around 3,500 delivery postmen tomorrow.

At Wolverhampton's North West Midland mail centre on Sun Street, up to 1,000 postal workers walked out on strike today, although all will be back at work tomorrow.

Smaller delivery units in towns across the region, served by the two main sorting offices, were operating today but postmen and women working there will be on strike tomorrow. The Communication Workers Union, which called today's strike over proposed changes in conditions and working arrangements, today said the action had won overwhelming support amongst its workers.

The Royal Mail is set to bring in up to 30,000 casual staff between now and over Christmas although it says these workers will not break the strike but help clear the backlog of mail caused by it.

Wolverhampton union branch chairman Andy Morris, aged 39, who has also been a postman for 15 years, said he and his colleagues had gone on strike with a heavy heart. He said: "The Royal Mail is trying to railroad through changes without consultation. It wants to make unrealistic savings and unnecessary job cuts."

Union officials claimed that around 25 contract staff were working at Sun Street today supported by managers.

Staff return to work there at 6am tomorrow when other workers walk out on a 24-hour stoppage at delivery units including those at Dunstall Hill, Patrick Gregory Road, Wednesfield, Walsall and Lichfield hitting post deliveries in those areas.

Chris Hawkes, aged 44, who lives in Appleton Avenue, Great Barr, works at the Birmingham sorting office and has been with the company for 25 years. He said: "This could have been been sorted if the government wasn't involved. It has got its own agenda."

Today the Federation of Small Businesses said 70 per cent of the 4.8 million small firms in the UK rely on Royal Mail for their post. It says every postal strike costs its members £300 each a day.

Business minister and Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden today described the strike as "tragic", saying the union had failed to give clear reasons why it was going ahead with the action.