UK postal strike to go ahead

National strikes by British postal workers will go ahead tomorrow and Friday after hopes of reaching a last minute deal collapsed.

Up to 120,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will stage two 24-hour walk-outs, crippling mail deliveries across the country.

The union warned of further strikes in the coming weeks and launched an extraordinary attack on Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, saying he was working "hand in hand with the Royal Mail" to "undermine the dispute".

General secretary Billy Hayes accused him of being the "minister without responsibility".

Dave Ward, the union's deputy general secretary, said the Royal Mail had no intention of resolving the dispute and seemed intent on "sidelining" the concerns of postal workers.

Mr Ward, who led the union's negotiators during marathon peace talks, said he believed progress had been made and that a deal could have been agreed which would have averted the strikes.

But he said a letter sent today to the union by Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson had "wiped out" progress which had been made during the talks and scuppered the chances of a deal.

Mr Ward said the letter from Mr Higson "completely contradicted" some of the issues that had been agreed during the talks and it appeared that he had a "veto" over the talks.

Mr Ward went on to claim that every time progress had been made during the negotiations "external forces" had deliberately attempted to undermine the chances of a deal.

He singled out three men - Mr Higson, Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier and Mandelson.

"What we have seen in the last few days is a deliberate choreograph that tells us that the government and the Royal Mail are working hand in hand to avert any chances of reaching a solution."

Mr Ward said he had met Mandelson nine months ago when the British government was attempting to part-privatise the Royal Mail and was told that the minister had no confidence in the company's board and management, saying they did not have the skills to transform the company.

Mandelson said the only way industrial relations would improve was if Dutch company TNT was brought in to help run the business, Mr Ward claimed.

He went on: "We are absolutely clear that the real truth behind this dispute is that Lord Mandelson clearly feels it is pay-back time because we defeated him on privatisation.

"Lord Mandelson is backing the same people he said did not have the expertise to deal with the transformation of the business."

Scores of meetings have been held in recent months to try to resolve the dispute but Mr Ward said Mr Mandelson, Mr Crozier and Mr Higson had not attended any of them.

Mr Ward said he appreciated the inconvenience the strikes would cause but said the union genuinely believed it had "no alternative" other than to stand up for postal workers.

He repeated that the union was willing to go to the conciliation service Acas but said it was now time for senior management and British government ministers to become involved.

Mr Hayes said the union would be taking legal action against the Royal Mail regarding its plans to recruit 30,000 agency workers to deal with the effects of the strike as well as the Christmas rush.

Legal opinion had been received and the union would be testing the Royal Mail's move in the High Court.

Other union leaders have warned the British government that it should take action against the Royal Mail because it was illegal to take on workers to cover for strikers involved in a legitimate dispute.

Mr Hayes said Mr Mandelson could not "walk away" from a company owned by the British government, adding: "He needs to get involved - he cannot just wash his hands of this dispute."

The two union leaders believed that the public was aware of how strongly postal workers cared about the service.

Mr Ward accused the Royal Mail of managing the "decline" of the postal service adding: "This must be the only company in the world to invest in automation which results in products being received later because businesses and customers get their mail later in the day."

Mr Hayes said he had written to Mr Mandelson on several occasions in recent months but replies were either delayed or not received at all.

The Royal Mail condemned the decision to go ahead with the "wholly unjustified" strikes and said it was willing to keep on talking.

The company said it had made a "reasoned and sensible" proposal today which it said would have averted the immediate strike action and provided a period of calm in the run-up to Christmas.