MORE than 400 jobs in Bolton and Liverpool will be lost if Royal Mail goes ahead with plans to close postal distribution centres.

Angry members of Communication Workers Union say a leaked Royal Mail document "clearly states that jobs will go".

When the BEN put their claim to Royal Mail today, a spokesman admitted that the end result would be 400 fewer jobs in the region - but remained adamanant that no permanent staff would be made redundant.

As reported in the BEN, Royal Mail want to shut Bolton's distribution centres in Wingates and Lostock and another in Liverpool.

Workers are furious and have warned that they are "heading towards all-out strike action".

The union has called on Royal Mail to re-evaluate its decision to move the depot to Crewe and look at developing the existing sites or move to new premises in the Bolton area.

Staff have been told that they will be retrained and redeployed, and that there will be no need for redundancies. At a regional meeting of the union, the Bolton and Bury branch vowed to team up with colleagues in Liverpool to "oppose Royal Mail by all means at their disposal."

A union spokesman said there was no way Royal Mail could re-deploy all the staff affected.

He said: "In a leaked Royal Mail document it states quite clearly that 401 jobs will be lost, yet they keep telling the press that no-one will lose their employment. We disagree. The first people to go will be our temporary contract members and then it will be full-time staff."

The Royal Mail spokesman said: "These changes will take at least two years to take place and every permanent employee will still have a job at the end.

"We are totally confident we can manage the changes without having to make anyone redundant."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.