Postal strike: Mandelson urges union to "wake up" and support "modernisation"

The union has been organising local 24-hour strikes across the country in protest against changes and cuts by Royal Mail.

Billy Hayes, the leader of the CWU, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the government seemed to be silent on the issue of the Royal Mail and were "sulking" because they had failed to privatise the company.

Hayes said, "There hasn't been one government minister, at any level, talking about the strikes - which have disrupted services."

"It seems to us that some government ministers are sulking because they haven't yet managed to privatise Royal Mail."

"This is a company that they own, and they don't seem capable of saying one single word."

"Ministers appear to be on strike themselves."

Earlier this year Lord Mandelson said that plans to privatise Royal Mail had been postponed, a move many commentators saw as the price for continued support from Labour MPs for Gordon Brown's leadership, which was under heavy attack at the time.

Lord Mandelson's decision to put privatisaion on the back shelf came just weeks after saying that he and the government were "not for turning" on the scheme.

Today Lord Mandelson hit out at the CWU saying, "Time and again in the past, the CWU has asked ministers to intervene in their disputes and their strikes to frustrate Royal Mail modernisation."