Postal workers are worried about low pay and job cuts

Ahead of the ballot, most observers had expected workers to vote heavily in favour of strikes in a dispute over pay and conditions.

But while the first national strike in seven years appears to have been averted, London-based Royal Mail workers voted in favour of a strike over London weighting allowances.

The national result will be a bitter blow to Communication Workers Union (CWU) leaders, who have been locked in talks with Royal Mail bosses since Monday.

The union's national executive is expected to meet on Thursday to decide on its next move.

Management pressure

The CWU said it would also be meeting Royal Mail bosses on Thursday to continue negotiations "with the clear objective of reaching an agreement acceptable to all our members".

But observers believe the ballot result leaves the way clear for the Royal Mail to push ahead with 30,000 planned job cuts.

In a statement, the CWU said: "The national ballot is disappointing news for the union but Royal Mail cannot view a less than 1% majority as a mandate for massive job losses across the industry."

Strike ballot results Votes in favour of action: 46,391 Votes against: 48,038 Majority: 1,647

A CWU spokesman added: "We still have to get a negotiated settlement, all that's changed is that the union's position is considerably less strong that it was before."

The separate ballot of CWU members in the capital found 11,417 in favour of a strike and 4,316 against.

Nationally, union officials blamed pressure from management for the outcome, but said postal workers would continue to fight for a better wage.

The dispute is over pay and conditions, with postal staff rejecting a pay raise valued by management at 14.5% over 18 months, because they say it is tied to changes which would mean the loss of thousands of jobs.

Keeping post moving

ROYAL MAIL OFFER 14.5% pay rise over 18 months - 3% in October - �26.28/week in local productivity deals - 1.5% in April Average basic pay for a 40-hour week lifted from �261.98 to �300 End to second delivery, giving a five-day week for all Loss of 8,500 jobs on voluntary basis 30,000 redundancies across Royal Mail group 16,000 of those jobs gone already Total cost of proposals: �340m

Jim McNichols, of the union's Greater Manchester Branch, said workers had voted against a strike because they were "worried about their jobs".

But he also blamed Royal Mail "propaganda" for influencing the vote.

The Royal Mail has said it was losing �750,000 a day during the last financial year - a figure contested by the union - and claims a strike would be "commercial suicide".

TRADE UNION DEMANDS 8% pay-rise in October Talks to achieve �300 a week Swift discussions on end to second deliveries and new shift patterns No fixed target for job-losses Agreements tailored to local post office needs Shorter working week

Royal Mail bosses also said they had drawn up a contingency plan to keep the postal service moving, in the event of a strike.

The plan includes guaranteeing cash supplies to post offices to pay pensions, and managers volunteering to staff sorting offices.

It also involves taking out adverts asking the public and many businesses not to post letters on strike days.

A strike would be potentially damaging for the prime minister, who appointed Royal Mail's chairman Allan Leighton.

Mr Leighton and chief executive Adam Crozier were brought in from the private sector to turn the business around and make it profitable again.

�200 a week

Some postal workers said they found it hard to live on their Royal Mail wages, which, they claimed left them with less than �200 for a 40 hour week.

Allan Leighton was appointed by the prime minister to bring business common sense to an industry not known for it BBC's economics editor, Jeff Randall Profile: Chairman Allan Leighton Profile: Chief executive Adam Crozier

But according to the company, the basic pay rates for postmen and women are