Mail centres hit by post strike

Postal workers have set up pickets at sites across Scotland

Scotland's mail centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen will be disrupted by the latest strike action in the postal dispute.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said collections in these cities would also be affected.

Collections elsewhere would be hit on Saturday when delivery workers take industrial action, she said.

Three days of talks between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have failed to end the dispute.

The Royal Mail spokeswoman said managers would be collecting from post offices and nearby post boxes in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

'Significant progress'

She said: "If customers need to post items, then do so early in the day in a box outside the post office.

"Outside Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, mail will be collected as normal but won't be processed until after the strike."

Royal Mail said there had been "significant progress" in the talks, and urged the CWU to return to the negotiating table.

The CWU said it had tabled a new proposal, but had not heard back from Royal Mail by 1800GMT on Wednesday, so had decided to go ahead with the strikes.

Staff at the mail centres were due to walk out at 0400 GMT as part of the UK-wide action.

On Friday 400 workers at three sites in England who assist mail centres by reading and entering mail addresses will take action.

On Saturday 77,000 delivery and collection staff across the UK will join the strike.