Postal strike to go ahead on Thursday

Wed Oct 28 2009 21:15:10

A series of strikes by postal workers will go ahead as planned from 4am on Thursday, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said.

Up to 120,000 members of the Communication Workers Union will walk out from 4am causing huge disruption to mail deliveries.

The strikes were confirmed despite three days of intensive talks between union leaders and Royal Mail bosses, under the chairmanship of TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

The Royal Mail accused the union of walking away from the peace talks and condemned the new strikes.

Dave Ward, the union's deputy General Secretary, said this week's talks had been the "most useful and productive" since the start of the bitter dispute over jobs, pay and modernisation.

But the company said the union was "playing havoc" with customer confidence.

Up to 120,000 CWU members staged two 24-hour walkouts last week, which delayed more than 30 million items of mail.

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