Postal workers launch national strikes
THOUSANDS of postal workers manned picket lines across the country today at the start of national strikes as a war of words erupted over the increasingly bitter mail dispute.
Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and network drivers launched a 24 hour strike today, while 78,000 delivery and collection workers will walk out tomorrow.
The Communication Workers Union is set to announce further strikes after hopes of reaching a last minute deal collapsed, leading to bitter recriminations.
Union leaders launched an angry 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".
Mr Hayes said the union would be taking legal action against the Royal Mail over 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 urged the Government to take action against the Royal Mail because it was illegal to hire workers to cover for strikers involved in a legitimate dispute.
Mr Hayes accused Lord Mandelson of "walking away" and "washing his hands" of the dispute.
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 this week, 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 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 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 Lord 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."
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 which it said would have averted the immediate strike action and provided a period of calm in the run-up to Christmas.
Mr Higson said: "Over the last day or two we have tried to persuade the CWU that there is a sensible way forward and that proposal was sent formally in a letter today.
"But despite the fact that the CWU agreed to take that solution to their national executive today, the union has yet again failed to honour its commitment to call off strikes in return for a period of no change and has shown again that its intention is to inflict as much damage as it can on the postal service and on our customers and to oppose the modernisation which is essential if Royal Mail is to survive."
Lord Mandelson said he deeply regretted the strike decision, adding that industrial action was not in the best interests of the Royal Mail, the work force or "hard pressed" consumers and businesses.
He said: "In the meantime, the Government will ensure that vital services to the public, especially those who are most vulnerable, are maintained.
"The only way this dispute will be resolved is through productive talks and negotiations.
"The company and the union must work together to find a long lasting solution and make the progress on modernisation that the Royal Mail desperately needs to survive."
Labour MP John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) called for the Royal Mail to be taken away from Lord Mandelson's portfolio.
"By allowing this dispute to escalate on his watch, confidence has been lost in Mandelson, the minister responsible, being sufficiently independent to be able to resolve this dispute."
The industrial action is set to cripple deliveries and cause a huge backlog of mail, just two years after the last national postal strike.
Deliveries have been badly hit in parts of the country in recent months because of regional walkouts.
CWU members voted by 3-1 in favour of a national strike in a ballot complaining that jobs were being axed, pay cut and working conditions made worse.
The Royal Mail maintained it was merely modernising the business in line with an agreement reached to resolve the last national strike.
HM Revenue & Customs was urged not to fine people who are late submitting their tax returns because of the postal strike.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) and Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) called for people who missed the October 31 deadline to submit paper tax returns not to be penalised.
Shortly after the union announced that the strikes would go ahead, the Government published figures showing that almost one million working days have been lost due to industrial action at the Royal Mail since 2000.
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