A postal worker walks past a Royal Mail van at a delivery office in north-west London on Monday. Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union resumed talks on Monday, aimed at avoiding national strikes planned over pay and reforms, while Royal Mail is planning to hire up to 30,000 temporary workers.
LONDON (AP):
Britain's mail service ground to a halt yesterday after tens of thousands of postal workers walked off the job in a 48-hour national strike.
Rolling walkouts that began over the summer have contributed to a backlog of some 5 million packages and letters, according to Royal Mail spokesman David Simpson.
Workers began the strikes over better pay and job protection against a plan to modernise equipment that they say will result in job losses.
About 42,000 postal staff and drivers began a 24-hour strike yesterday morning. About 78,000 delivery and collection workers plan a one-day strike today.
Important letter
"I just mailed a very important letter that needs to arrive tomorrow and I am not sure if that is going to happen now," said Ruhid Said, a 32-year-old shop assistant in London.
The Royal Mail has struggled to make money since it lost its 350-year-old monopoly, and has had to deal with falling mail volumes as customers switch to email.
An independent review recommended last year that the company be partly privatised - a move the government said would not be feasible during the economic downturn.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Royal Mail management and postal workers to solve the dispute.
"If more and more customers leave the Royal Mail and more and more customers stop using the Royal Mail, then more jobs will be lost, so this is self-defeating," Brown said.