Postal strikes called off at last minute

Published: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30:00

The nationwide postal strikes which were due to take place tomorrow and Monday have been called off. The third round of the industrial action was set to involve 121,000 Royal Mail workers and was due to be the most disruptive of the strike actions yet. Sources from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) leaked reports earlier today to the BBC that said strike action would not go ahead. This has now been confirmed by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, who said: "After intensive negotiations an agreement has been reached.

"The agreement reached today is a very important step forward. "Royal Mail will now be free of disruption up to and including the Christmas period. I am in no doubt that the lack of trust between unions and management has been a barrier to an agreement being reached at an earlier stage."

However, he added the disagreement wasn't over, and further talks would be held at a later date between the postal service and the unions. The CWU have been in talks with the Royal Mail at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) headquarters in London all week. Workers have been striking over modernisation plans, pay and job losses. The Royal Mail has shed 63,000 frontline postal staff in recent years, and says it needs to cut more jobs as part of continuing modernisation plans.

Following the strikes over the last few weeks there is now a backlog of three million letters. The CWU had threatened to take Royal Mail to court tomorrow to prevent agency workers from being employed during the industrial action.

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