Solidarity with Trade Unions and their campaigns is the bread and butter of being part of the Labour party. Nevertheless, I find myself increasingly frustrated with the CWU over their industrial action at the Royal Mail.

I have two main reasons for this:

1. The CWU need to realise that an open postal market means that for old monopolies, the only way is down; Royal Mail is not going to increase its market share in the face of competitive pressure. As a result, it will become increasingly difficult for the company to sustain the workforce and working practices of old as business moves from the old monopoly to new entrants. In addition, the impact of electronic communication on old postal business models is profound.

2. Given the Royal Mail's future business relies predominantly on its ability to meet customer expectations today, the strike action organised by the CWU will not alleviate but compound the problem it is trying to solve. The Royal Mail makes its money through business customers and these businesses need certainty in postal delivery. The current rounds of industrial action will force more companies to reconsider their postal arrangements, and it is more than likely that Royal Mail will lose business at a result of this strike action.

However, far from strengthening the CWUs position, loss of business will weaken them. As the Royal Mail continues to lose business, there will be ever increasing pressure on their management to make 'efficiency' savings - and this will probably mean redundancies. A weaker financial position will also almost certainly make it harder for the CWU to argue for inflation busting pay rises for its members in future.

And, at the end of the day, the CWU must realise that as the strikes continue, and people and business fail to get their post delivered on time, that support for their industrial action will wane. As will the prospect of them ever actually receiving anything other than bad news from the Royal Mail management.

Both sides in this dispute need to very quickly knock their heads together and sort this out, for their own sakes.