Five days of Post Office strikes before Christmas

Post Office workers are to stage five days of strikes in the week leading up to Christmas.

The industrial action next week follows a dispute with management over job losses, the closure of a final salary pension scheme and branches being shut.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the walkout would include Christmas Eve.

A spokesman defended the decision to strike, saying the union feared the Post Office "as we know it" will cease to exist unless "we stand up now".

A spokesperson from Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) said: "If any industrial action takes place, we expect there to be no or little effect on the services we provide to our customers.

"Post Office limited has around 11,000 branches which will continue to operate as normal.

"Customers who need to post at a Post Office should use these branches."

The spokesperson added: "Royal Mail customers will also continue to have access to pre-paid parcel drop-off through over 1,200 Customer Service Points at Delivery Offices nationwide."

The Post Office also said it had dramatically cut its losses over the last four years and modernised almost 7,000 branches, with more than 200,000 extra opening hours each week.

Kevin Gilliland, the Post Office's network and sales director, said: "Just today, we agreed with the CWU that we would resume talks, which have been ongoing throughout the summer, on Wednesday.

"We are extremely disappointed that they prefer to resort to calls for strike action and we will be reviewing our position in light of this development.

"Our focus must be on supporting our customers, who rely on us at Christmas more than ever."

CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: "Our members are being forced into fighting to save their jobs and this great institution from terminal decline.

"We didn't want to be in this position ... We are defending the very future of the Post Office in this country.

"We want a Post Office that works for everyone, for communities, for small and medium-sized businesses, and for the people who serve them - our hard-working members.

"But the people running the Post Office have no serious plan other than further closures and managed decline and we won't accept that."

He added: "We will be making a firm proposal for meaningful talks to establish a vision for the future and, if the company respond to that positively, then this dispute can be avoided."