1 OUT, 120, 000 OUT

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Posties solid as a rock in first strikes

Defiant posties launched a wave of crippling strikes yesterday, setting up picket lines across the country.

Up to 42,000 mail centre staff and drivers began a 24-hour stoppage at 4.30am in protest at job cuts and enforced work changes.

And today they will be joined by up to 78,000 delivery workers - with further walkouts expected next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Support for the action was said to be "solid" as union chiefs blamed intransigent bosses for escalating the dispute into the first national mail strike for two years.

Roger Charles, branch secretary of the Communication Workers Union at London's Mount Pleasant sorting office - the biggest in Europe - said: "The strikers feel very strongly about the way they've been mistreated by management.

"They are striking in order to save the service for our customers. Royal Mail say this dispute is all about modernisation, but to us it's about worker exploitation."

He added: "They want to change conditions without consultation and increase work rate to such a level that it's impossible for a postman to actually lift what he's posting.

"They also want postmen to walk at speeds that are impossible unless you're some sort of Olympic athlete."

Union leaders say they are willing to call off the action provided the company agrees to "unconditional" talks at the conciliation service ACAS. But there was no sign of any softening of attitude by Royal Mail last night.

With the service facing meltdown and huge backlogs, managing director Mark Higson, said: "It's appalling but sadly not surprising that the CWU has called still more strikes in its determination to damage customers and ruin the UK postal service.

"Any pretence from the CWU that they care about customers or about the future of the postal service is now shown to be totally dishonest."

Lord Mandelson has urged both sides to continue talking to end the deadlock - and raised the prospect of Acas becoming involved. Leaving his London home he said: "I don't think trading insults is helpful. People need to focus on what issues are dividing them."

His comments were echoed by Gordon Brown. The PM said: "I think, instead of striking, the workers and the management should be sitting round the table. The only way to solve an industrial dispute is by the management and workforce getting together."

He added: "This strike will be selfdefeating if all it means is that less people use the Royal Mail."

But rank and file workers were in no mood to back down.

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Pauline Bell, 53, on a picket line in Leeds, said: "People think this is just about pay, but it is much more - it's about harassment and intimidation. There is less people to do more and more work.

Postman Patrick Lovelock, 48, of Romford, Essex, said he had been left £800 out of pocket by a string of strikes in London in recent months.

"In my 30 years of service, we have never had it so bad," he said.

In Birmingham CWU official Steve Reid said: "It's been appalling in the last few months - that's the reason we are here today."

Delivery driver Steve Edhouse, 50, from Westminster, warned that the strikes could go on "for some time yet". He added: "Things have never been worse. We are just being run into the ground."

Strike leaders are becoming increasingly suspicious that Royal Mail is out to smash the union.

A leaked document revealed by the Mirror earlier this week showed bosses were preparing to force through changes "with or without" agreement from the CWU.

And the decision to hire 30,000 temporary workers to tackle backlogs has also been seen as hostile.

Mail rival TNT busy

Business was busier than usual yesterday at the depot of Royal Mail rival TNT in Ashton, Manchester.

The private carrier has said it intends to cash in on the industrial action.

Last week TNT said it was looking to hire another 30,000 workers for Christmas.

This week Royal Mail lost out to the firm when TNT was awarded an £8 million contract with the Scottish government to deliver all their mail.

Up to now TNT says it hasn't been able to transport a sufficient amount of mail to the final doorstep delivery to make it financially worthwhile.