THE Royal Mail and the postal workers who are the backbone of its service are almost a national institution.

Even Peter Mandelson is apparently frightened to take them on and privatise them.

Like the BBC and the Church of England, this institution is part of our often nostalgic national view.

Now people will say many things about Postman Pat and his army of friends, but I have never heard anyone say that posties are overpaid. We can probably all recall examples of delivery workers who have gone out of their way to know the customers on their patch, to help the elderly or to deliver an awkward package.

We can also probably give examples of inefficient service from this national institution. Letters which arrive almost comically late or go to similarly named destinations miles away.

This national view of the mail service is perhaps part of the reason why the current unofficial strike by delivery workers, and official action by processing and distribution staff, in Stoke-on-Trent is attracting attention.

However, there is also the fact that it has been a long time since a national strike of any sort has made ordinary life difficult. This one undoubtedly has.

People are waiting for hospital appointments, giros or job offers which are stuck in the system. In a time of recession we need basic structures like the post to work well.

Inconvenient as it is to the rest of us, I would suggest that the right to strike must be part of our values. However, that does not mean that each and every strike is justifiable.

Indeed, when their action is likely to cause such inconvenience to other members of society, workers should think very carefully so that they are not abusing the right to strike.

In this case there does seem to be a huge measure of inflexible conservatism behind the strike. Our local workers seem to be some of the most militant in the country.

Royal Mail is part of the communications industry and this has changed more than any other in the last two decades.

Just as newspapers had to go through massive changes with the advent of new technology, so must mail delivery. I was horrified to hear a union leader suggest that the volume of letters has not reduced with the advent of e-mail and other forms of communication and business behaviour.

If services like daily deliveries in remote parts are to be preserved, then management must organise the tasks to be done in whatever way they believe serves the interests of the business.

If this cannot be done by the current public owners, then it will be sold and the service we all receive will suffer.

It does seem apparent that various restrictive practices have grown up within the Royal Mail. Knocking off once a round is delivered is just one of these. It is easy to understand why such practices are damaging the very precarious sustainability of paper-based mail deliveries.

However, that is not to say that bosses should be allowed to impose conditions on workers which deny a proper livelihood or work life balance.

The principle involved here is co-operation. Mail bosses need to recognise that efficiency will not be achieved by treating workers like robots.

Bullying posties into submission is a recipe only for continued impasse.

It will require real ongoing dialogue and flexible thinking to find a situation in which the maximum rewards can be generated by the business for all those involved.

I am very grateful to the delivery people who get the mail to my door efficiently in all weathers. I want them to enjoy their jobs as much as possible.

I don't want to pay too much for posting letters (and I will communicate in other ways if I have to), nor do I want to pay huge taxes to subsidise the mail.

Forget the ideology, the principle should be co-operation and it surely can't be impossible to achieve a continually first class service.