Post strikes suspended in UK as union considers offer

Union leaders today suspended a series of planned strikes by postal workers as they continued to consider a proposed deal aimed at resolving the bitter mail dispute.

The executive of the Communication Workers Union met for a second day to decide whether to recommend the deal, which includes a 6.9% pay rise over two years.

The union announced that strikes planned by workers including drivers and staff at an international distribution centre based at Heathrow would not go ahead because of the meeting of the executive.

The official strikes were due to be held tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. Strikes due to be held yesterday and today were called off last Friday after the Royal Mail obtained a court injunction.

Meanwhile, hundreds of workers continued with wildcat strikes today, with the unofficial action spreading to Yorkshire for the first time.

Hundreds of workers at a huge distribution centre in Normanton, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, took unofficial industrial action this morning, causing fresh disruption to mail deliveries.

Hundreds of postal workers in Liverpool continued with their unofficial strike, hitting 21 sorting offices across Merseyside.

The Liverpool workers have taken wildcat action for several days because of a row over shift times.

Union officials in Yorkshire said workers objected to changes to their duties, linked to the later shift times being introduced at sites across the country.

One official said managers tried to impose the changes rather than negotiate with the staff.

The Royal Mail said 150 workers were involved in the unofficial action in Yorkshire, adding that 99% of the company’s employees were working normally today.

The company said the changes were linked to a new European directive which will cut the maximum speed of commercial vehicles from 70mph to 56mph from January.