London hardest hit by postal workers strike

LONDON (Reuters) - London was hardest hit by a postal workers strike on Friday after 10,000 workers in the capital walked out, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said.

A further 2,000 workers in Scotland, central, eastern and southwest England joined the stoppage in protest at cuts and management action at Royal Mail.

Royal Mail said, despite the local strike action by the CWU more than 90 percent or around 150,000 of postal workers were working and supported by management volunteers.

"Only 20 Royal Mail offices outside London, out of around 1,600 nationally, are affected by the CWU strike , while the network of post office branches is not affected and will be open as usual," the Royal Mail said.

In London around 1,200 managers were working to maintain priority delivery and collection services, Royal Mail added.

The CWU said it was pleased with the response.

"It has not been a national strike, we've had 12,000 people on strike out of a total 170,000. We have not called everybody out on strike," a CWU spokesman said.

Due to adverse market conditions the government this month suspended plans to sell up to 30 percent of Royal Mail, which has a large pension deficit and has seen business fall because of competition from other operators and the growth of e-mail.

The plan was to make the post office more efficient and competitive, but the part-privatisation strategy had been condemned by some Labour lawmakers and unions.

(Reporting by Phakamisa Ndzamela; editing by Keith Weir)