More UK postal strikes after talks fail

Mail misery looks set to continue after negotiations aimed at ending the postal dispute ended without any agreement and further strikes were announced.

Officials from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail managers met for eight consecutive days to try to reach a deal in a long-running row over pay, jobs and pensions.

Some progress was made at the talks, held under the chairmanship of TUC general secretary Brendon Barber, but the negotiations ended last night with the row still deadlocked.

The union has also announced further industrial action with a series of 24 hour strikes by different departments starting next Monday.

The rolling action is designed to disrupt services while ensuring workers lose only one day’s pay.

Mr Barber said: “I am very disappointed that this phase of intensive talks has not resolved the dispute when real progress has been made, and we have been edging towards an agreement.

“I will be keeping in close touch with the CWU and Royal Mail to continue to seek to find a way forward.”

The union said there had been “real progress” in many areas but none had led to an agreement.

“The offer includes a pay increase of 6.9% over two years but this is subject to linking unacceptable strings including a reduction in pension benefits.

“Royal Mail’s proposals also include flexibility proposals that mean, among other things, that postal workers will not know what job they are doing from one day to the next” said a spokesman.

The Royal Mail said it was “hugely disappointed and extremely concerned” that the talks had not resolved the dispute.

The firm said in a statement: “After a weekend of intense negotiations, the CWU is still refusing to accept the flexibility that Royal Mail urgently needs if it is to modernise and survive.

“Royal Mail has offered both short and longer-term solutions on pay within the 2.5% we can afford for pay this year.

“We have now been talking to the union for seven months on pay, modernisation and pensions, but rather than accept a solution the union continues to table unrealistic proposals that fail to deliver the efficiency needed if we are to compete in today’s challenging market place.”

Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier added: “We simply want our people to work the hours they are already paid to work across the working week – something which had been taken for granted in almost every other UK company for decades - using the equipment we are investing in to enable Royal Mail to compete and survive.

“The fact that the union leadership finds this so difficult starkly contradicts their public claim to support modernisation and change”.

The Royal Mail said it remained available for further talks and claimed that union members were “drifting back to work” despite the strike.

But union general secretary Billy Hayes said: “Royal Mail’s claims regarding the numbers of people at work are a poor attempt to detract from the truth that postal workers are rejecting their proposals in overwhelming numbers.

“They should stop using their efforts to spin and start putting them into reaching an agreement”.

Yesterday hundreds of striking postal workers held a rally in central London at which the Government was criticised for “staying on the sidelines” during the dispute.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at yesterday’s Downing Street press conference that he believed the strikers should return to work.

The union’s Postal Executive will meet to consider the dispute following the ending of talks.