Last ditch talks have failed to avert a postal strike.

Union boss Terry Pullinger said there had been no real movement from management during Wednesday’s talks and the two-day strike will take place, starting today at 5.30am.

The Post Office said talks will resume today but robust contingency plans were in place for the strike action.Mr Pullinger tweeted last night: 'Tomorrow our members take strike action to defend their jobs, terms and conditions and the service they provide to businesses and the public.'Simon Kneen, Post Office chief executive, said: 'Despite there being a genuine effort to find a solution to the dispute on both sides, the talks were unable to find a framework in which to find a solution which was acceptable to either party.'We remain committed to working with the CWU to bring this strike to a swift conclusion and look forward to further talks tomorrow.'Mr Pullinger said the Communication Workers’ Union had offered three days of ’meaningful’ talks.

But this had been narrowed down to just one by the Post Office which he said had wanted to await the outcome of Tuesday’s Tynwald vote.

He said: ’I’ve never been in talks like these as it’s so fait accompli. We’ve wasted two days waiting for the Tynwald debate.’

Tynwald voted to support in principle the board’s strategy including proposals to close the final salary pension scheme for new starters and end Saturday letters delivery.

Mr Pullinger, CWU deputy general secretary postal, said:’Tynwald has taken a side with only one side of the story.

’Politicians once again covered themselves in no glory. No wonder people have lost faith in political processes.’

He said public support for the postal workers was holding up well and CWU members were ’still absolutely determined to fight’.

Other proposals by the Post Office management include lower pay rates and terms and conditions for new recruits, changes to voluntary redundancy procedures and a 1% pay offer, which the union says is an effective pay cut.Reducing the number of post office branches is also being considered as the network makes a loss.Post Office chairman Julie Edge told Tynwald that the pension scheme was no longer affordable or sustainable.She claimed the idea of ending Saturday letter deliveries was suggested by local CWU members.Mr Kneen said with potentially more than 200 members of staff out on strike an island-wide doorstep delivery of standard delivery will not be possible and the Post Office will prioritise premium services.He added: 'We wish to assure customers that we have robust contingency plans in place for today and Friday’s planned strike action and apologise in advance for any disruption this will cause our valued customers.'To reiterate our plans, maintaining the flow of mail to and from the Island over the two strike days will be our priority and Post Office management is planning for the worst case scenario to try to minimise disruption to customers and delay to their mail.'Depending on how many people attend for work on the strike days, we will try to deliver and collect as much other mail as possible.'The Post Office will receive both air and sea mail into the island on the mornings of both strike days as normal and make evening airmail despatches to the UK.Special Delivery and Parcelforce next–day guaranteed items will be delivered on strike days although may be subject to a small time delay. Meanwhile, the despatch of Special Delivery and Parcelforce items on those evenings will be as normal and the time guarantee for both services will remain in place.Regular updates will be available on a dedicated ‘Strike Action Updates’ web page, www.iompost.com/Strike and on the Facebook page ‘Isle of Man Post Office’.The Post Office is asking customers to check there for the latest news before calling the customer services Team.