180 walk out at Middlesbrough delivery office

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UP to 180 postal workers on Teesside joined colleagues across England in a walk-out today.

Members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) at the Middlesbrough delivery office began their dispute during the early hours over Royal Mail job cuts and modernisation programme.

Other industrial action is taking place in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Wales today with further walkouts by CWU members planned next week in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, London and the Isle of Wight.

"We do not like to take action and we do not like to impose any issues on our customers," said Pete Sansum, the CWU's Middlesbrough spokesman.

"But the reality is our members are being pushed and bullied and we have to try and take some action to stop this."

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said it was doing its best to minimise the effects of the action but was faced with tackling the problem of increased competition from the electronic media and the recession, which meant mail volumes were falling by around ten per cent per year.

He added: "We again urge the CWU to call off its strikes and to join the Royal Mail's drive to complete the modernisation of the business."