Walk-outs held by postal workers

Three walk-outs are being held during the day

Postal workers in Darlington are holding a series of walk-outs over fears about their jobs.

Nationally, more than 12,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are taking part in a 24-hour strike.

In Darlington workers are holding three hour-long walk-outs over concerns about plans to move work to Newcastle and the viability of the town's mail centre.

Royal Mail said it had contingency measures in place and said it expected the mail centre to operate normally.

CWU branch secretary Brett Giroux said that Royal Mail had made the decision to move the centre without agreement.

Contingency measures

He said: "The reason for the dispute today is in relation to the transfer of work from Darlington up to another processing centre in Newcastle, which affects the jobs here in Darlington.

"Up until this point we have currently lost six temporary contracts as well as a number of vacant duties which obviously in the current climate, with unemployment as it is, [are] jobs that could have been taken up by other members of the public."

The decision not to strike for 24 hours was to reduce the impact on the public while getting the message across to Royal Mail, the CWU said.

Royal Mail said in a statement: "We have contingency measures in place at Darlington Mail Centre to mitigate the effect of industrial action and expect the mail centre operation to run normally."