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Thousands of postal workers across the UK will be striking and demonstrating on Friday 17 July against continuing cuts and executive action by Royal Mail, the Communication Workers Union has announced.



Strike action will take place in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Darlington, Stoke, Plymouth, Leamington Spa, Norfolk and Essex . Other offices across the UK will be protesting in other ways, including holding gate meetings and releasing balloons.



In the afternoon a letter and postcard will be delivered to Royal Mail's chief executive Adam Crozier, along with business secretary Lord Mandelson. Once these have arrived safely at their addresses a national balloon release will take place with thousands of balloons rising above Royal Mail workplaces across the UK.



Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "There are serious and growing problems in the postal sector which urgently need resolving. We have renewed our offer of a three month no-strike deal to Royal Mail in return for meaningful talks over modernisation.



"The current cuts, bullying managers and ever increasing workloads on a shrinking workforce cannot continue. Pressure and stress is at breaking point for postal workers so we urgently need a fresh start for a modern Royal Mail.



"Royal Mail has abandoned the final phase of the 2007 Pay and Modernisation agreement which mandated the company and CWU to negotiating modernisation. There's been no negotiation over bringing in machinery, redesigning deliveries or improving industrial relations. These problems will not go away unless Royal Mail addresses them through talks.



"The national day of action on Friday is in response to an ever growing number of requests for industrial action from postal workers across the country who feel let down by Royal Mail management. We have almost 400 ballot requests at the moment with more coming daily. Without progress this could effectively turn into a national strike."