BUSINESSES and the public were last night braced for a further three days of strikes at Royal Mail after planned action began yesterday.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) said three days of fresh strikes would start on Thursday as it attempted to increase the pressure on Royal Mail.

Yesterday, thousands of mail centre workers nationwide walked out and are expected to be followed in another 24-hour walkout today by postal delivery workers.

An estimated 18,000 Royal Mail workers from the North- East are expected to join in the dispute this week.

The CWU and the Royal Mail have been unable to reach an agreement on pay and modernisation of the service, sparking strike action that Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday called selfdefeating.

He said: “This strike is solvable and I believe that management and the workforce can resolve it.”

CWU deputy leader Dave Ward urged Royal Mail to meet the union at the conciliation service Acas for talks.

Royal Mail bosses said further strikes were reckless and unjustified, and said the CWU had failed to keep an agreement negotiated on Tuesday that would have avoided industrial action.

The strike hit some of the region’s biggest mail centres, including at Middlesbrough and York.

An estimated 250 staff at a Royal Mail processing and distribution centre at Canon Park, Middlesbrough, which handles mail across Teesside, failed to turn up for work, with some joining a picket line at the centre.

Kevin Phillips, chairman of the Cleveland amalgamated branch of the CWU, said some parcel businesses that make pick-ups from the centre had refused to cross the picket line.

Mr Phillips said striking workers cared about customers and apologised for any disruption.

However, he said: “We have been left with no alternative to taking this course of action.

“We are seeing record levels of bullying and harassment because workers are being forced to take on excessive and unmanageable workloads.”

In York, about 500 mail centre and 800 delivery staff walked out yesterday.

A spokesman for the North- East Chamber of Commerce criticised the strikers, and said: “This is unhelpful to businesses, and we hope any strike action will be over as soon as possible.”