Post workers stage further strike

Union leaders warn of a national strike in September

Thousands of postal workers in London have staged another 24-hour walkout in a long-running dispute over plans to modernise the service.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said around 12,000 of its members were involved in the action, affecting deliveries and collections all day.

The CWU accuses Royal Mail of "bullying tactics" over its modernisation plans.

But managers insisted that union leaders were intent on trying to undermine much-needed change.

'Clear vision'

Strikes will spread to the south-west of the country on Thursday, followed by Basildon on Friday and locations across the Midlands on Monday.

The union has announced plans to ballot all its postal-worker members for a national strike in September, threatening the worst disruption to mail deliveries for two years.

"Postal workers are being hit hard with closures, cut-backs, a pay freeze and an increasingly bullying management that refuses to negotiate," said the union's general secretary Dave Ward.

"Recent meetings cannot be called 'talks' as Royal Mail does all the talking and is not interested in the concerns or ideas of the CWU."

Royal Mail accused the union of breaking an agreement that ended the 2007 strike and of refusing to co-operate with modernisation.

A spokesman said: "Royal Mail has a clear vision of creating a modernised and market-leading business in which we are investing around £2bn.