Fears grow over how strikes will impact Christmas after pictures of ‘chaotic’ Bristol Royal Mail centre emerge

Photos taken 17 hours apart showing undelivered post at a Royal Mail centre in Bristol have stoked fears about how industrial action could affect the city during the Christmas period.

Chaotic scenes of undelivered post were pictured at a mail centre in Bristol both yesterday and today (December 13) as posties prepare for another walkout tomorrow. Some of the containers pictured at 7pm yesterday were photographed in the same spot today around lunchtime - 17 hours later.

A total of 10 days of strike action has been planned by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), with over 115,000 members walking out in the run-up to Christmas. Six days of strikes have already taken place, and taken their toll on deliveries, but with four days of walk-outs to come, including action on Christmas eve, many fear not getting their deliveries on time.

The Royal Mail insists the scenes are ‘typical for this time of year’, but the CWU has said recent scenes at mail centres are ‘highly unusual’ and ‘chaotic’.

A CWU spokesman said: “Millions of letters and packages are backlogged across the UK as the Christmas mail mounts up. The CWU and postal workers want to save Christmas but Royal Mail must step back from their all-out assault on our members' jobs, terms and the service they provide. Simon Thompson risks ruining Christmas for millions of people. The ball is in his court.”

The last first-class posting date for Christmas has been brought forward to December 16. The CWU has rejected a pay offer of 7% plus a £500 lump sum, as they claim Royal Mail wants to cut jobs as part of this pact.

Royal Mail is currently losing more than £1million per day, and says the potential pay offer is being eaten away by the costs of CWU strikes.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are doing all we can to deliver Christmas for our customers and minimise the impact of damaging industrial action. The CWU is striking at our busiest time, holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country. We apologise to our customers and strongly urge them to post early for Christmas.

“The pictures show busy mail centres with thousands of parcels moving through our network and this is typical for this time of the year. The sites shown are processing 30,000 parcels an hour so volume moves very quickly through the centres and on to the next stage in their journey.

We have been doing a good job of quickly recovering from days of industrial action and have well-developed contingency plans in place to minimise delays and keep people, businesses and the country connected. However, we cannot fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce on days the CWU are taking strike action.”