Postal delivery staff across Oxfordshire were out on picket lines this morning on the second day of a 48-hour strike.

More than 1,000 Royal Mail employees in Swindon, where Oxfordshire’s mail is now sorted, walked out at midnight on Wednesday.

They were joined this morning by hundreds of delivery workers at offices across the county, including Royal Mail House in West Oxford, Ledgers Close in East Oxford, Abingdon, Banbury and Chipping Norton.

About 30 members of the Communication Workers’ Union were picketing this morning at Royal Mail House off Oxpens Road, Oxford, where about 100 staff are based.

Steve Gill, the office’s Communication Workers Union spokesman, said: “There is strong support for this action here — only two or three members have gone into work and they are office-based.

“We are not against modernisation and want to move forward in a constructive way, but the last time there were constructive talks between staff and management here was 168 days ago.

“Following the 2007 Pay and Modernisation Agreement, the management has stopped negotiating properly.

“Staff are being given extra workloads, or having their jobs changed on a daily basis, without any extra money.

“We do sympathise with our customers and we want to deliver but we are not being allowed to do our job.”

Mr Gill estimated that about 1,000 delivery staff across the county were taking industrial action out of about 78,000 nationwide.

The CWU is planning a further three days of stoppages next week, unless they can be avoided through negotiations.