Search: Post strike talks
Fresh talks to find a solution to the bitter postal workers dispute were under way as union leaders threatened longer strikes in the future.
Royal Mail managers met officials from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) during the second wave of national walkouts in a bid to head off the possibility of huge disruption to Christmas post.
Strikes continued for a second day, and more will be held on Saturday, after around 43,700 workers staged a 24-hour stoppage on Thursday in the long-running row over jobs, pay and modernisation.
Sources said fresh talks were being held. A CWU spokeswoman said: "We're hoping for as many talks as possible. The urgency is obviously rising."
The CWU's postal executive held back from naming more strike dates as frantic efforts were made to get the negotiations back on track.
But Billy Hayes said there was "every prospect" industrial action will now be stepped up, while the union is still considering whether to take legal action over Royal Mail's move to hire 30,000 agency workers to deal with the backlog of mail caused by the strike as well as the Christmas rush.
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Mr Hayes said: "We will be upping the dispute. We will not be scaling it down. There is every prospect that we will increase the action and we could be looking at longer strikes."
Hopes of averting the latest action collapsed on Wednesday despite three days of talks between the two sides held under the chairmanship of TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson said the sticking point to the dispute was resistance to modernisation in certain parts of the country, adding that agreement had been reached in many areas. The Royal Mail was "very concerned" about the effect of the strikes on customers, but Mr Higson said disruption would be "limited".
A backlog of 30 million letters caused by two strikes last week had been reduced to less than two million and Mr Higson said he was confident delayed mail caused by the new walkouts will be cleared by early next week.
