If the Royal Mail’s workforce goes on strike next week as currently threatened, it will be an important moment in the history of digital disruption.

The recent change in standing of our once world-leading postal service is largely down to the same technology that continues to reshape the media and many other industries. Seeing as many skilled media people still don’t have a grasp of this digital stuff, I doubt that the postal union reps are thinking ‘digitally’ about the consequences of trying to protect an outdated status quo.

Even with Lord Mandelson stressing that a strike would be “a suicidal act”, they seem intent on pressing on with action supposed to improve the deal for their members. The pace of technological change has caught most industries off guard, but Mandy isn’t just issuing idle statements about the potential demise of the Queen’s very own posties.

It’s not just the fact that banks and utilities are moving their billing (and junk mail) online, but the broadband-equipped population demands efficiency and above all immediacy in every area these days. We hear daily stories about companies planning on leaving the Royal Mail, and they really have no option. The majority of these are businesses that are successful online, including the home delivery daddy, Amazon. Trying to argue for better pay deals for an analogue workforce in a streamlined digital era is as ridiculous and futile as trying to copy-protect digital music files. Far better to accept the reality of how we live today and work out how to provide a relevant service around that.

There will be job losses, but we’re in the middle of another social revolution here. Next week may go down in its history as the moment a great institution was steam-rollered by progress, but it need not end that way.