London postal workers to stage 24-hour strike

Postal services face disruption next week when Royal Mail workers in London stage a 24-hour strike.

Although the stoppage next Wednesday is restricted to 20,000 London members of the Communication Workers' Union, it is believed that deliveries in many other parts of the country will be disrupted.

While postal workers throughout Britain voted narrowly against action over pay, their colleagues in the capital opted for strikes in support of a £4,000 London weighting.

CWU officials warned it would take a week to clear the backlog of mail. However management said it had "robust plans" to deal with the industrial action and accused the union of being out of touch with its members.

Royal Mail said it had offered to increase the inner London allowance to £3,784 a year from the current £3,484 and the outer London allowance to £2,667 from £2,368. The company said its London allowances compared well with other professions including the health service and local authorities.

Dave Ward, the CWU's deputy general secretary, said: "This is likely to be a long campaign. No decisions have been taken, but we will be considering further action."