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Dave Ward, Deputy General Secretary CWU on why postal workers have voted to strike

Royal Mail postal workers have voted to take strike action over job security and working conditions.

They voted three to one in favour of action, with 61,623 out of a total of 80,830 workers who voted saying they wanted to strike.

But the Royal Mail said 60% of the total number of postal workers working in the UK did not vote to strike.

The company and unions have been unable to resolve differences on how best to modernise the postal service.

ANALYSIS By Martin Shankleman, BBC employment correspondent The outcome may not have been in doubt, but the size of the majority in favour of action is certainly a surprise. Three quarters of union members polled endorsed the union's call for a national stoppage - much higher than expected - at a stroke undermining the Royal Mail's suggestion that staff disaffection with the company was restricted to a few hotspots around the country. It is also significant that the government, which owns the business, has refused to intervene, despite fresh pleas today from the CWU leader Billy Hayes. But given his union's role in destroying Labour's plan to part-privatise Royal Mail in the summer, it's hardly surprising that his union has few, if any, friends left in Whitehall. Who else can deliver my letters? Q&A: Royal Mail dispute Send us your comments

The Royal Mail "condemned" the plan to strike as "deplorable and irresponsible", saying it would drive away customers and undermine confidence in the postal service.

It said 121,000 members were balloted, but there are a further 20,000 postal workers who are not members of the union.

Optimism?

However, Paul Tolhurst, operations director at Royal Mail, said he was hopeful of making headway with the company.

"We have been talking to the CWU for around the last six months... but based on my experience of those talks last week, we are slowly moving forwards, so I have some optimism," he told the BBC.

And despite the yes vote, Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, said he hoped to avoid a strike.

"We know that we've got difficult challenges ahead, we're ready to meet those challenges and we want to do that through working with the company, and we want to do that before a national strike becomes a reality," he said.

But although both sides seem to be making optimistic noises, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston questioned the basis of that optimism.

The range of issues that the workforce seems to be dissatisfied with makes it difficult to know what management could offer to resolve the dispute, he said.

"I am almost reminded of the Cold War when the Russians and the Americans didn't speak the same language," he added.