Striking postal workers in Belfast have ignored union pleas to accept a proposal from Royal Mail to end the dispute, it was claimed tonight.
Eleven days since the start of the wildcat action the company said an end to the strike seemed to be further away than ever. David Peden, Royal Mail's Commercial Manager for Northern Ireland said: "This is not the outcome that we or our customers had hoped for. "We lodged a letter with the Labour Relations Agency on Wednesday which should have brought this illegal action to an end. "It now appears that there is a clear difference of opinion between local union representatives and their national HQ colleagues. "We thought the gap between us was narrowing, but local CWU (Communication Workers Union) are demanding a set of preconditions which we simply will not accept." Mr Peden said any legitimate employee concerns will be looked at when the dispute is over. But he added: "We have made it crystal clear from the beginning that we will not accept prerequisites for ending unlawful strike action.
"It's a principle that we don't think any business would concede on." Royal Mail also claimed staff who turned up for work at the company's Tomb Street headquarters were threatened and intimidated by picketing workers on several occasion during the week. The strike has halted deliveries of post in north, south and west Belfast, stopped all mail being sent to mainland Britain and forced the Royal Mail to stop accepting Special Delivery items. However the company said it would do its best to deliver mail posted in Britain.