Bognor postal worker defends strike action

Paul Mountain revealed more than 100 workers at the town's delivery office supported last week's action which caused postal chaos.

Crisis talks are still ongoing that could result in further strikes across the country starting today, with a single day of industrial action planned for Bognor on Saturday.

Mr Mountain, 33, who has worked at the Bognor office for 13 years, said: "I feel taking action is the only thing we could have done '“ it was a real last resort for us as we all have families and mortgages to pay for.

"We do understand about the level of inconvenience caused, but we hope short-term pain caused by this will result in a better long-term postal service.

"We're aware the modernisation plans with Royal Mail will mean job losses, but we want to be able to negotiate over this rather than have it imposed on us. Hopefully, with some commonsense on both sides, we can reach agreement."

Royal Mail's response to the strikes has been to employ 30,000 temporary staff nationally in a bid to plug delayed post build-ups which have resulted in 30 million letters being delayed.

At the core of the dispute has been Royal Mail's planned phasing-in of new sorting machinery next year which is set to streamline its operations. This will require fewer sorting staff at mail offices which has caused considerable concern within the workforce.

According to Mr Mountain, another key issue of delivery methods for the Bognor office has now been temporarily resolved.

Working practices were due to be introduced demanding that posties had just ten minutes to deliver letters from the office to addresses across Bognor, which many believed was unfair.

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