Fresh wave of post strikes
Thousands of mail workers are taking part in a fresh wave of strikes - amid warnings the bitter dispute could escalate into longer walkouts.
Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, believes there is "every prospect" that industrial action will now be stepped up.
Mr Hayes said: "We will be upping the dispute. We will not be scaling it down. There is every prospect that we will increase the action and we could be looking at longer strikes."
More than 1,000 postal workers from the Royal Mail Centre in Sun Street, Wolverhampton, today took part in the 24-hour action due to end at 4am tomorrow.
Those on the pickets warned of a fresh wave of action affecting 1,500 workers in district offices across the Black Country on Saturday.
Dave Jones, Wolverhampton political officer of the CWU, revealed all processing, delivery and distribution staff were on strike with only management and agency staff in the building.
He said: "We want to resume normal working but we don't want to return on the back of a poor deal. We are striking for the right to negotiate our terms and conditions. We have lost 63,000 jobs in the last five years so we've shown we are not against modernisation.
"Wolverhampton was the first centre in the country to introduce a flat sorting machine for A4 envelopes, and we had no problem with that."
Around 1,000 workers also walked out at the centre in Newtown, Birmingham today with delivery staff set to strike on Saturday.
Up to 120,000 union members will be on strike over the next three days following the collapse of peace talks last night.
The CWU claimed today that Royal Mail's plans could lead to 60,000 job losses, while the company accused the union of tabling fresh demands which scuppered hopes of a deal.
