Postal workers' vote sends bleak message to Labour

Postal workers yesterday presented both Conservatives and Labour with a new election battleground, with news of a decisive vote for a fresh round of industrial action at the Royal Mail in the run-up to Christmas.

In a turnout of 78 per cent, delivery and sorting office workers voted by a margin of more than three to two to begin a new wave of stoppages.

While the majority in favour of action was down from 68 per cent in the first ballot last spring to 61 per cent, the management was keen to continue talks which had already begun in private before the ballot result was known. Negotiations are expected to begin before the end of the week.

Ian Laing, President of Board of Trade, argued that the vote failed to give the union a mandate to "cause misery" to the public during the Christmas period. Less than half of those eligible to vote had supported action, he pointed out.

He repeated his warning that if the postal service was disrupted, the Government would suspend the Post Office letters monopoly for three months. There is little doubt that the Conservatives will use any industrial action as an argument in favour of their proposals to remove legal immunities from unions engaged in "disproportionate" action in monopoly services.

The vote will also put considerable pressure on Labour to maintain its tough stance towards unions. However, the Opposition was determinedly playing a straight bat yesterday in reaction to the decision by 138,000 postal workers.

Stephen Byers, shadow minister for training and employment, said: "We see this as a last opportunity for both sides to get together to resume negotiations, to ensure that a satisfactory solution is found, the Post Office is saved from privatisation and that the legitimate claims of both sides are met."

Alan Johnson, joint general secretary of the Communications Union, argued that the voye, of 64,919 to 40,581, was an "unquestionable mandate" to reject the pay and productivity proposals which had already caused eight previous nationwide strikes.

Mr Johnson, who had tried to persuade his senior union colleagues to accept the Post Office offer, has suggested that a joint working party and an independent chairman should try to find a way through the dispute. The group would examine a management proposal to introduce team-working, the issue at the heart of the dispute.

Ken Wright, assistant managing director of the Royal Mail, said: "The ballot result doesn't take us anywhere. The central problem of Royal Mail's need for a new way of working cannot be wished away. Strike action will not solve the problem,it will only drive away more customers." He said that however, the fresh contact with the union provided a "real opportunity" for both sides to resolve the dispute.