Postal strikes to go ahead as talks fail

Postal strikes will go ahead this week, starting at midnight tonight and ending at midnight on Friday.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) announced the strikes this evening, after talks with Royal Mail failed to reach an agreement.

The CWU blamed the chairmen and senior managers of Royal Mail and business secretary Lord Mandelson for not taking part in the talks, inviting them to 'get your hands dirty and get in the room' to resolve the dispute.

At least 120,000 members of CWU will walk our over the next two days over pay, conditions and modernisation.

Marathon talks between the CWU and the Royal Mail this week had hoped to prevent the strikes from happening, but failed to resolve the matter.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said: 'I was hoping today to announce that we had made sufficient progress to call off the strike action.

'We did make progress. We wanted to end this dispute as soon as possible.

'We had a letter from the chairman of Royal Mail this morning. [It was] basically a veto on what had been agreed.

'But every time we think we are making progress there are external forces coming in to stop us from making an agreement.'

The CWU blamed the chairmen of Royal Mail and Lord Mandelson for the break down of the talks. The CWU quoted Lord Mandelson as saying he had no confidence with the board of Royal Mail.

Billy Hayes, the general secretary of the CWU, added: 'It does appear that Peter Mandelson is the minister without responsibility.

'He appears to want to wash his hands of this particular debate.

'It seems to be he is the minister without responsibility. He is responsible for the Royal Mail and he needs to get involved.'

Mr Ward added: 'What we're saying is you can reach an agreement but you need the key players to be present.

'We want to be in position where we can resolve this before the Christmas period.'

Yesterday the business secretary said the national strike action would be 'totally self-defeating', driving away customers and could 'irrevocably damage' the Royal Mail's reputation. He added if the strikes did go ahead for a prolonged period, contingency plans for delivery of hospital appointments and medical test results were being drawn up.

The CWU hit back at Lord Mandelson's speech, saying it would damage the talks.

It is thought the strikes could seriously damage small businesses.