ROYAL MAIL must be renationalised to protect the 500-year-old service from incompetent bosses who are evading their legal obligations to deliver letters nationwide six days a week, retail workers said today.

The strike-hit firm’s universal service obligation (USO) will “never come back if we lose it,” Yorkshire delegate Stephen Lord told the final day of retail union Usdaw’s annual conference in Blackpool.

Many delegates expressed their solidarity with “valiant” Communication Workers Union (CWU) members, who first downed tools at Royal Mail in August last year over attempts to impose gig economy-style working conditions and further take-home pay cuts.