New strikes cripple services and industries across the UK

Strikes by rail and Post Office employees affected services on Monday as more workers threatened industrial action amid signs that the Government will not attempt to ban walkouts.

The Post Office is among a range of services which have been hit by strikes

Post Offices and Southern Railway were hit by strikes involving thousands of workers in separate, long running rows over jobs, safety, pensions and branch closures.

Workers at cereal company Weetabix are to go on strike in the new year after voting for action in a row over shift patterns.

Members of Usdaw backed industrial action by 9-1 on a turnout of almost 70 per cent.

Meanwhile talks were held at the conciliation service Acas to try to resolve a pay row involving cabin crew at British Airways, which threatens strikes on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The airline said it would run a full service over Christmas if the strikes by Unite members go ahead.

Striking Post Office workers set up a Santa’s Grotto, complete with live reindeer, outside the Business Department.

The Communication Workers Union staged the festive protest, backed up by fake snow, before handing in more than 70,000 postcards signed by members of the public across the country in support of their campaign.

General secretary Dave Ward warned that the future of the Post Office in high streets was at stake because of the franchising of Crown Post Offices to retail firms such as WH Smith.

The union claimed a fresh wave of closures is set to be announced in the new year.

The Post Office said around 50 branches were closed by the strike.

Sacks full of postcards were handed to security staff, who piled them up in the lobby of the building.

The postcards, gathered over two weekends, call for the franchise programme to be abandoned and support the idea of a Post Bank being established through the branch network.

Mr Ward said that he made an offer to the Post Office last week to call off the industrial action in return for talks about the future of the network, which he said was rejected.

He accused the Government of standing by while Crown offices closed, and said company executives were only being interested in “managing decline”.

“This is a dispute about the future of high street Post Offices. Good quality offices are being moved to the back of businesses, offering fewer services and leading to worse pay and conditions.

“That model is exactly what is wrong in this country and with the world of work today.”

Kevin Gilliland, group network and sales director of the Post Office, said: “Over 99 per cent of our branches are open for business today.

“Today’s strike action closed fewer than 50 of our 11,600 branches. Over 50,000 people across our business are on hand to help customers with their preparations for Christmas. All of our branches will be open as usual on 21, 22 and 23 December.

“It’s simply not true that we are unwilling to talk with CWU. We have been meeting with CWU both formally and informally since we received their notice that they were balloting for industrial action in July.

“Our senior leaders have consistently been in attendance at these meetings, including with Acas, with the goal of resolving the dispute.

“Last week we offered to meet again for intensive talks immediately after the busy Christmas period, and we confirmed that we would not make further announcements prior to these taking place. CWU have also had a standing invitation to meet with our group executive since June, to which we have had no response.”

A Downing Street spokesman said the unions were showing “shared contempt” for the people whose lives they were disrupting.

But the spokesman declined to say whether Prime Minister Theresa May regarded the strikes and their timing in the run-up to Christmas as politically-motivated, saying only that it was for the unions to explain their own motivations.

He played down the prospect of new legislation to tackle strikers, pointing out that the Government has just passed a Trade Union Act, adding: “The Prime Minister’s focus right now is on getting these disputes settled and on easing the burden that has been unnecessarily place on hundreds of thousands of people.”

Talks will be held on Tuesday to try to avert pay strikes later in the week by Unite members employed by Swissport as baggage handlers and other ground staff at 18 airports.