Up to 2,000 postal workers at seven sorting offices across England are planning a 24-hour strike on December 19 - the day before the last Christmas posting day for first-class letters.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said its members in Liverpool, Stockport, Oldham,Crewe and Bolton as well as Coventry and Oxford will walk out over the planned closures of mail offices.

The union said the closing mail offices in the area would have a “devastating” impact on local economies and could spark job losses.

Ian Taylor, divisional representative for the CWU in the North West, said: "We believe that Royal Mail’s plans have been drawn up without any real joined-up thinking about how the changes will affect the rest of the network.

"These changes will see a decline in the quality of service we provide to our customers with later deliveries, fewer and earlier collections."

“Royal Mail’s actions pose a real threat to a large number of jobs.”

The union said it had “no alternative” to industrial action, claiming that managers were attempting to move work out of some of the offices listed for closure before Christmas.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "The reported strike proposals would affect less than five per cent of our workforce but we are clearly disappointed that the the union would urge strike action at this important and busy time of year - and we are asking all our people to get on and deliver the Christmas service our customers want and deserve."

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