Postal workers warn of strike

A row is holding up negotiations over pay

Postal workers are to stage a national strike next month unless a dispute over deliveries is resolved, their union has said.

Postal workers will walk out for 24 hours on 8 May, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The CWU and postal firm Consignia are due to hold talks on Wednesday to avert the strike.

The threatened stoppage would be the first nationwide strike by postal workers since 1996.

Negotiations

Consignia lost £1.5m a day during the six months to November last year and announced 15,000 job cuts in March as part of a three year plan to restructure the business.

The two sides are involved in negotiations over pay, with Consignia having tabled a 6.9% offer.

The CWU said 2.2% of the offer covered agreement over changes to delivery patterns, but it wants this element to be separated from any pay rise.

The union wants to ballot its members on a pay rise of 4.7% and to negotiate any extra payments for new delivery patterns.

'Financial suicide'

Jerry Cope, group managing director for Consignia's mail services, said any approach other than mediation would be "financial suicide" for the organisation.

Consignia has been hit by falling revenue due to increased use of e-mail and by the end of its monopoly on postal delivery services in the UK.

The company is lobbying the postal regulator Postcomm to water down plans to liberalise the letters delivery market.