No more strikes before Christmas, under interim agreement

The union for the postal services, the Communications Workers Union, has cancelled all further industrial action until after Christmas.

The news comes after long talks between the CWU and Royal Mail yesterday. Two 24 hour strikes were due to take place today and on Monday, involving 120,000 workers.

Brendon Barber, general secretary of the TUC, which has been overseeing the talks, said, "Royal Mail services will be free of any disruption up to and through the Christmas period. That's what Royal Mail, that's what the CWU want and what both sides are committed to."

The details of the interim agreement will be released later today, but according to the CWU, the agreement ensured that their demands of job security and improved terms and conditions would be considered in the modernisation of Royal Mail, which is at the heart of the industrial action.

Royal Mail has said that it needs to cut more jobs to stay competitive, despite the 63,000 redundancies made in the last few years. Royal Mail's bid to modernise comes as the company loses market share to private mail operators. Letter volumes are also decreasing by around 10% per year, as customers switch to deigital means of communication.

Some postal workers responded to the news with anger, telling union leaders that the threat of industrial action over Christmas was their strongest card in the negotiations over pay and job cuts.

Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said, "Our members will now know we can deal with modernisation in a way that gives them improved job security and improved terms and conditions."

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