UNITED with the rest of the movement, striking postal workers will defeat “the biggest attack on a group of workers since the miners,” Communication Workers Union leader Dave Ward told a riotous strike rally this morning.

Posties took their eighth successive day of strike action today, joined by Royal Mail cleaners and engineers taking action for the first time.

A constellation of trade union leaders joined “virtually every postie from this office” and crowds of activists from multiple unions outside Royal Mail’s  Brighton delivery office to pledge support for workers striking for pay, jobs and the company’s future.

Mr Ward slammed Royal Mail bosses and mainstream media presenters who echo their “bland statements that this is about modernisation.

“I’ll tell you what this is about — it is about destroying the jobs and lives of 120,000 postal workers and the services we provide to the public.

“Please understand what’s at stake here. They want to end daily deliveries. They want to replace our members, force them out the door, bring in self-employed workers and new starters on 20 per cent less and three more hours on the working week.

“They are destroying one of the greatest companies that has ever been in the UK.”

Royal Mail is threatening to axe 10,000 postal workers’ jobs, citing predicted losses this year of £350 million — though in April it posted £758m profits and it has paid £400m out in dividends to shareholders in the last year.

Mr Ward connected the posties’ strike to the national strike action by BT workers and other strikes spreading across the economy.

“The biggest problem is that there is an imbalance of power and wealth and it permeates through every single industry. The economy is rigged against us.”

Alongside rousing solidarity speeches from TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady and the leaders of GMB, UCU, PCS, the NEU and RMT, the rally was addressed by “the world’s most famous postal worker — Santa Claus,” who led chants of [Royal Mail CEO Simon] “Thompson Out!”

At Congress, the CWU agreed to remit its motion calling for reform of TUC structures including five-year terms for elected TUC general and deputy general secretaries, saying it was keen to work with other unions to reform the federation to meet the scale of the current crisis.