A series of rolling postal strikes that have brought chaos and forced managers to sort mail in the gutter are being stepped up from today.
Homes and businesses stretching from Cambridgeshire to London, the Midlands and Scotland will suffer a new round of delays this week.
Tens of millions of letters and parcels are sitting in a mail mountain caused by a series of rolling strikes by some 20,000 Royal Mail employees.
On the road: Postal workers sort through sacks of mail on Worple Road, Wimbledon
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) claims the backlog is already worse than during the last national strike in 2007, while some people have not had post for ten days.
Delivery offices were closed across London over the weekend with the result that managers were forced to resort to leafing through piles of post on the pavement.
One woman who took pictures of the scene at Worple Road, Wimbledon, South West London, said: 'I was surprised to see the mail in the street and pedestrians walking over it...I've only had three bits of post in the past three weeks.'
Local resident Brian Narborough could not believe his eyes when he saw mountains of mail in the street
Brian Narborough, 60, of Raynes Park, said: 'As I drove past, I could hardly believe what I was seeing.
'These postal people were throwing the mailbags over their shoulders and into the street from the vans. It's not what you expect in the middle of a suburban street at a weekend.'
The union has announced plans to hold a national ballot for an all-out strike that would cripple the postal system, hurting families and businesses.
There is evidence of credit card statements and utility bills being held up, which can lead to penalty charges and threats of legal action. Hospital appointment letters have also been delayed.
Separately, thousands of small businesses are seeing delays in cheques and orders.
The Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, whose attempts to part-privatise the Royal Mail were seen off by the union and Labour MPs earlier this year, is under pressure to resolve the dispute.
The CWU claims Royal Mail management has reneged on promises surrounding the implementation of a modernisation programme, that will see thousands of jobs lost and working patterns changed.
Staff are also angry over the implementation of a pay freeze at a time the Royal Mail has enjoyed its best profits performance in 20 years.
The management claim only modernisation can ensure Royal Mail's survival against a background of falling mail volumes as people increasingly switch to email and rival private operators.
The Direct Marketing Association said the Government must act to end the dispute.
Spokesman, Robert Keitch, said: 'It is quite clear that businesses cannot sustain these interruptions indefinitely.
'Should relations deteriorate further and a national postal strike take effect, this would have a significant impact on businesses that rely on issuing invoices and receiving payment via post.
'We are seeing evidence that the economy might be staging a recovery from the recession and yet strike action could be the final blow for many struggling companies.'
He added: 'Disruption to the post will drive companies away from using mail to sell their products, which will not be particularly helpful to the Royal Mail and its employees when mail volumes are already down year-on-year.'
A Royal Mail spokesman said the images of managers sorting mail in the street were 'exceptional'.
'We are doing everything we can to get as much mail to customers as soon as possible, including using management volunteers, to lessen the impact of the CWU strike action,' he said.
'The activity in the picture was exceptional and shows we are determined to get our customers mail to them.'
Members of the CWU will start voting on Wednesday on whether to back a nationwide strike, with the result expected on October 8.
Royal Mail attacked the decision to press ahead with the national strike ballot as 'wholly irresponsible', as talks between senior management and the union leadership were still being held.
Its operations director, Paul Tolhurst, said: 'We urge the CWU to abandon strikes and the threat of strikes, and focus on providing customers with the service they need and expect, rather than planning to hurt them with the threat of more strikes.'
The CWU's deputy general secretary, Dave Ward, said: 'Royal Mail's head-in-the-sand approach to the problems in the mail industry is now severely damaging services for customers, with backlogs bigger than in the national strike of 2007.'
Postal strikes are due to take place in the following places over the next week. The action is all for 24 hours.
- Monday, September 14
· Cambridge delivery office
· Ely delivery office
· Haddenham delivery office
· Isleham delivery office
· Soham delivery office
- Tuesday/Wednesday September 15/16
· Cricklewood
· Hampstead
· Kilburn
· NW1
· Poplar Docklands
· Rathbone Place
· South West London
· Southwark
· Stratford
· Willesden
· Wimbledon
· Woolwich
- Wednesday, September 16
· Birmingham network drivers, from 4am
· Carlisle network drivers, from 4am
· Coventry network drivers, from 4am
· East London distribution centre network drivers, from 4am
· East Midlands, Nottingham network drivers, from 4am
· Greenford network drivers, from 4am
· National distribution centre, Northampton network drivers, from 4am
· Nine Elms, Vauxhall network drivers, from 4am
· Northern Home Counties distribution centre, Hadfield network drivers, from 4am
· North West regional distribution centre, Warrington network drivers, from 4am
· Peterborough network drivers, from 4am
· Princess Royal Distribution Centre, London network drivers, from 4am
· Swindon network drivers, from 4am
· Yorkshire distribution centre, Leeds, network drivers, from 4am
London Wide delivery offices from 3am
· East London
· Collection Hubs
· SW London
· SE London
· NW London
· North London
· West London
- Friday, September 18