20,000 refuse to handle mail

London's worst wildcat postal strikes in almost a decade escalated today after talks to end the unofficial action collapsed.

Up to 20,000 postal workers refused to sort and deliver mail, leaving just a handful of London postcodes with any sort of service - and a mounting backlog of letters and parcels.

Businesses and homeowners are now braced for weeks of disruption, with every day of a strike creating an extra five days' work to deal with unsorted mailbags.

After an emergency summit between Royal Mail bosses and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) ended in failure late last night, there were predictions the wildcat stoppages could spread nationwide.

Royal Mail is employing up to 6,000 managers to collect mail from postboxes and deliver them to sorting offices and has bussed in emergency staff from as far afield as Bristol.

And despite the union officially being against the strike, its deputy leader today came close to throwing his weight behind the action.

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said the disputes resulted from local managers "attacking, humiliating and belittling" union members who took official strike action a fortnight ago in a row over London weighting allowances.

According to Mr Ward, bosses at various locations "refused overtime, changed duties, insisted on working Saturday as a normal day, victimised union representatives and generally tried to change, without agreement, all kinds of our members' terms and conditions".

Virtually all west London postcodes, many south-east postcodes, areas in north and north-west London as well as the City will be without a full postal service for days or even weeks.

Customers with important documents to send are now facing little choice other than to spend up to £30 on a courier or £3.70 to use the Royal Mail's Special Delivery service, which is still in operation.

Business leaders today called for an end to the action, which they claim is crippling tens of thousands of firms and has already cost an estimated £30 million.

Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce, said: "This is terrible news for London's businesses. All firms depend on an efficient post service for absolutely vital things like invoices and payments. Any disruption will have a disastrous-effect and will cost many millions of pounds."

A spokesman for Postwatch, the consumer mail group, said that Londoners could expect severe disruption to their deliveries for days.

"Although some post will still get through to big companies, households and smaller firms in the areas affected by the strike will not see any post arriving," he said.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "People can still post letters and expect them to be collected. But it will vary from postcode to postcode as to who will receive their post in the morning."