How it will affect you: Q&A

The longest Royal Mail strike for 11 years began at midday today when workers walked out after last-minute talks failed to end in agreement.

The postal workers union said today that no deal had been reached. “To date there is no agreed resolution. The industrial action will therefore go ahead as notified,” said a spokesman from the Communication Workers Union.

The double strike starting today will cripple all postal services for the next week. The first of a pair of two-day strikes has begun and when combined with the next two-day strike starting on Monday it will result in mail posted today not being delivered until next Thursday.

The stakes have been raised since the last national walkout in July because of the effect on postal votes if a general election is called.

Postwatch, the consumers’ group, said that normal service was unlikely to resume before October 15, when another programme of selective walkouts is scheduled to start for an indefinite period.

Business leaders have echoed the concerns of the public, Simon Briault, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “These two strikes taken together will knock out the postal service for the best part of a week.

“With 94 per cent of small businesses using Royal Mail exclusively and 89% of small businesses sending and receiving post every day, the effects on the economy of this disruption are frightening.

“The warring parties should do whatever it takes to reach agreement.”

The dispute between the CWU and Royal Mail is over pay and pensions. Royal Mail has offered a 2.5 per cent pay increase and wants to close the final-salary pension scheme to all employees. Its move on pensions also threatens to provoke strike action from its managers.

Royal Mail and the union have been attacked for not resolving the long-running dispute. Millie Banerjee, chair of Postwatch, said: “It is hugely disappointing to watch a great British institution tear itself apart.”

Guy Buswell, the chief executive of Business Post, one of Royal Mail’s biggest rivals, said: “The long-running nature of this dispute is extremely detrimental to the whole mail business.

"In short, we believe this action, if it continues, is in danger of damaging the future of the mail industry.”

Royal Mail’s main rivals have to use its network for the final-mile delivery, so they are also caught up in the strike.

The National Federation of Sub-Postmasters said that the dispute could weaken Royal Mail and the whole post office network.

The CWU has been pressing the Government to intervene. Billy Hayes, the CWU general secretary, is believed to have raised the issue with Gordon Brown at the Labour party conference.

Prolonged industrial action by the 130,000 postal workers in the dispute would be damaging at the start of an election campaign.

It would also have serious implications for postal voting. Royal Mail was refusing to say if it had contingency plans.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said: “Strikes are a proportionate response to an employer that is completely out of control. Rather than running the business, Royal Mail’s actions demonstrate they are intent on destroying it.”

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: “We will do all we can to mitigate the impact of the strike action, but we would ask our customers to avoid posting mail during the strikes and if they do so, then to post any mail at post office branches, which will all be open for business as usual.”

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