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UK Post Union Talks On Strikes Halted Until Tuesday

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Talks between management and the labor union representing workers at Royal Mail, the U.K.'s state-owned postal service, were adjourned Monday without an agreement to call off further nationwide strikes later this week.

But the Trades Union Congress, a union umbrella group that hosted the meeting, said the Communication Workers Union and Royal Mail representatives would continue talks Tuesday in the hope of resolving their dispute about pay, conditions, and the firm's modernization program.

"We have had useful discussions today and the talks are being adjourned to allow further work to be done overnight on some of the issues involved," Brendan Barber, the TUC General Secretary, said in a statement. "We will be reconvening again in the morning...in the meantime neither the CWU nor the Royal Mail will be making any further comment."

The TUC agreed to host the talks between the two sides after thousands of postal workers held a nationwide strike last Thursday and Friday. The CWU notified Royal Mail last week it would hold a further two nationwide strikes Thursday and Saturday and a smaller local stoppage Friday.

-By Nicholas Winning, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9498; nick.winning@ dowjones.com

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  10-26-091405ET
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