Present gripping work on leader of postal strike (8)
I believe the answer is:
stoppage
'leader of postal strike' is the definition.
'stoppage' can be an answer for 'strike' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'leader of postal' bit.
'present gripping work' is the wordplay.
'present gripping' becomes 'stop' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'work' becomes 'page' (paging is a kind of working).
'stop'+'page'='STOPPAGE'
'on' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stoppage that I've seen before include "Obstruction" , "sit-in" , "Instance of industrial action" , "Closure" , "action by strikers" .)