By Graham Huband

POSTAL DELIVERIES in Tayside were severely disrupted yesterday as almost 1000 Royal Mail staff across the region went on strike as part of a national pay dispute.

Support for the action was particularly strong in Dundee, where the Communication Workers’ Union claimed that all staff at the city’s delivery offices had heeded the call to strike.

Royal Mail said support for the strike had varied across the country, and that in some rural offices less than half the staff walked out.

CWU assistant counter secretary Tony Sneddon said management intransigence had left workers with no option but to take industrial action.

A further strike is planned for Monday when postal services are expected to be severely hit again.

Mr Sneddon said, “Basically they want to give us a wage freeze for three years and benchmark us against people who work in the retail trade such as Woolworths and WH Smith.”

Mr Sneddon continued, “We don’t want to inconvenience the public but we have to take a stand to defend our rights.

“Throughout the whole of the Royal Mail Group in Dundee there are three separate ballots.

“In Dundee there is 100% support.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said, “There is no way the service is anything like normal but we are doing our best by using managers to do the deliveries.

“Interestingly, in areas outside of the city—such as Angus, Montrose, Kirriemuir, Brechin and Forfar—a high proportion of staff are working and we expect mail deliveries to be much less disrupted and people to get their mail as normal.”

Royal Mail’s director of Scottish affairs apologised for the inconvenience, but said that the company was losing business because it had failed to modernise and cut costs.

A spokesman later said that just six of Scotland’s Post Offices had been forced to close, with the remaining 1651 branches open for business.

Courier firm City Link capitalised on Royal Mail’s problems.

The company’s sales and service director David Wilson said, “While the exact consequences of the action by Royal Mail employees may not be predicted, the biggest victims of a strike will undoubtedly be UK businesses.”