New Royal Mail strike announced

Royal Mail has been losing key contracts to rival postal services

Royal Mail workers will stage a second 24-hour walkout over pay and jobs, their union has said.

The strike will begin at 1900 BST on 12 July and will end the following day, the Communication Workers' Union said.

Last Friday, the CWU led a similar walkout across the UK - the first national postal strike in a decade.

Workers are angry over plans to restructure the company, though Royal Mail argues it has to change in order to compete with rival firms.

Staff have rejected a 2.5% pay offer and say they are worried that modernisation plans will see jobs cut.

Fresh talks call

Deputy general secretary of the CWU, Dave Ward, said that the strike could be averted if Royal Mail entered negotiations.

If you simply restate your previous position - that you will only meet to explain the challenges facing the business - then a further strike will take place Letter from CWU's Dave Ward to Royal Mail's Allan Leighton Q&A: Royal Mail strike

The union has written to Royal Mail's chairman, Allan Leighton, asking him to personally take part in fresh talks.

Mr Ward said that Mr Leighton had the opportunity "to avoid more strikes, simply by returning to meaningful negotiations".

But the letter insisted: "However, if you simply restate your previous position - that you will only meet to explain the challenges facing the business - then a further strike will take place."

Last week's post strike was the first national walkout in a decade

"If he again is dismissive of his employees, then there will be further strike action," he added. "This problem will not go away - Royal Mail are in denial if they think otherwise and it is in Allan Leighton's hands to take the workforce forward with him."

Royal Mail said it was "deeply disapointed" with plans for a second strike which would disrupt customers and "achieve nothing".

"The union is saying nothing new and is simply ignoring the challenge confronting everyone in Royal Mail," it added.

Contract losses

Royal Mail and the CWU disagreed over how successful last Friday's strike had been.

The union dismissed as "nonsense" Royal Mail claims that nationally up to 60% of its staff were working, saying that 95% of staff took part in industrial action.

The CWU has argued that Royal Mail's plans for modernisation will lead to 40,000 job losses.

But Royal Mail has said it needs to change the way it operates after the UK's postal market was opened up to competition.

It recently lost a "critical" £8m contract to collect second class mail from online retailer Amazon, and blamed higher costs caused by the company's "failure to modernise operations" for the loss of business.

And earlier this year, Royal Mail was ditched by the Department for Work and Pensions in favour of UK Mail.

Companies are unhappy at the prospect of disruption to services, and the Federation of Small Businesses has warned that further strikes would put the livelihoods and jobs of many people in small firms "at risk".