Postal union bosses have launched a bid to sabotage Gordon Brown's plans to partprivatise the Royal Mail, it was claimed last night.
Leaked documents show that Communication Workers Union chiefs have secretly banned postal workers from supporting moves to save public money, despite the future of the postal service hanging in the balance.
But critics pointed out that the bosses are fighting a 1p increase in the price of sausages at staff canteens at the same time as refusing to help cut costs.
The Prime Minister was also warned yesterday that pressing ahead with plans to sell off part of the company to the private sector would be ' a kamikaze move.'
Labour MP John Grogan predicted up to 90 of his colleagues would vote against the Government if ministers force a vote on the proposals in July, leaving Mr Brown needing Tory support to avoid another Commons defeat.
'A deal has got to be done between ministers and backbenchers,' Mr Grogan said.
Nearly 150 Labour MPs, including several ministerial aides, have signed a Commons motion opposing the plans.
But Mr Brown's chances of winning them over have been dealt a blow by the hard line taken by the postal union, which sponsors some of the rebels.
With Royal Mail bosses calling for a pay freeze to save the embattled business, union barons issued an order not to co-operate with modernisation measures until they get a better pay deal.
Industry sources say that more than £18 million of taxpayers' money is spent every year paying 2,800 CWU shop stewards for doing union work
But instead of fighting to cut costs and help make their business viable, union members are obsessing about the cost of their fried breakfasts.
In a letter to union branch chiefs under the headline 'urgent information for members', Assistant Secretary Ray Ellis detailed how postal workers would have to pay 40p for a sausage, up from 39p.
The price of bacon, eggs, hash browns, tea and coffee also rose 1p. Mr Ellis said: 'It will be our intention to place a document to the Postal Executive noting the changes and not agreeing them.'
A Whitehall source said: 'Huge amounts of taxpayers' money is spent to enable union officials to do their work.
'And this is how they spend their time, arguing over the price of a sausage, when they're not marching against plans to save the Royal Mail.'
Downing Street yesterday insisted the Royal Mail needs fresh cash to fill a pension funding gap of between £8billion and £9billion, and the expected loss of £700 million of business over the next year.
Postal affairs minister Pat McFadden ruled out a change of direction supported by some Labour MPs which would have seen Royal Mail turn into a not- for- profit company with some staff shareholders.
He dismissed the suggestion as 'unworkable and not under consideration', adding: 'It cannot be a political fix.' The CWU argues that the Royal Mail is making arbitrary cuts at a time when it is making a profit of £1m a day and outperforming its rivals.
Sources dismissed criticism of the canteen costs campaign as 'an unfair misrepresentation of the work of the union.'
A spokesman said: ' These things are separate. The cost reductions that Royal Mail is proposing of 10 per cent across the business don't have any link to modernisation.
'We're saying that we don't want a deal that is piecemeal, but to sit down and do a deal that covers everything. We are committed to modernisation.'
:mfo has something to do with this 
