Thousands of Post Office workers to strike on Halloween in a dispute over jobs.
Post Office workers are to stage a one-day strike later this month over jobs, pensions and branch closures.
Communication Workers Union members will walk out on 31 October.
Further action closer to Christmas has not been ruled out.
Union general secretary Dave Ward said: “The stakes have never been higher for the future of the Post Office, its workers and the communities they serve.
“The Post Office is at crisis point and the management and Government need to listen to the workforce.
“Staff and the public are seeing little more than a glorified closure programme from the Post Office and it cannot survive by simply cutting costs.
“We are calling for the Government as the owner of the Post Office to step in, halt the cuts and work with us to develop a proper strategy that will secure the future of the service.”
It will be the second one-day strike over the dispute.
Both sides have met at the conciliation service ACAS three times to try to resolve the row.
Kevin Gilliland, Post Office’s network and sales director, said they were disappointed the union was again talking about strikes.
“The Post Office has repeatedly invited the unions to discuss strategy and present its view of the future of the business to our group executive and board,” he said.
“We can reassure our customers that, if strikes go ahead, the vast majority of people working at Post Office branches would not be involved and almost all of our network will be open for business and operating normally.”
He said more than 11,000 branches were run by independent businesses, and the 50,000 people working in those branches will not strike.
“In addition, our contingency plans will ensure some directly managed branches will remain open and that there is sufficient cash and stock for our whole network,” he added.
