Swindon Postal workers join picket line

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Postal workers have formed a picket line outside a sorting office in Swindon as they begin a 24-hour strike.

More than 800 members of staff are expected to walk out of the Dorcan mail centre which will affect services across Swindon and in Oxfordshire.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are unhappy because of a disagreement over Royal Mail's modernisation programme.

The company said it was aiming to keep disruption to customers to a minimum.

Two more strikes are also planned for Monday and Tuesday next week.

Oxfordshire's post has been sorted in Swindon since June after Royal Mail closed the sorting office in Cowley. Delivery staff in Oxford are working as usual.

'Last resort'

Members of the CWU said they were unhappy about the way pay, pensions and job cuts are being handled.

Jason White, from the CWU, said: "It's a 24-hour operation we're running here but it's unbelievable there's not enough equipment to do the job, some of the machinery they have put in place is 25 years old and we're expected to run three mail centres into one now.

"We're looking for over 800 people to take action today. Our early shift started at 6am this morning and the figures we have been quoted is 97% of them have decided not to come to work.

"This is the last resort. The last thing we want to do is have people losing money and the public suffering but we've been to the Royal Mail on several occasions and they're just not listening".

Royal Mail are calling on the CWU to end the industrial action. It said mail volumes were falling by about 10% each year in the UK and asked the CWU to work together to modernise the business and improve efficiency.