TNS Corner
BBC braces for strike action
By John Peter
May 13, 2005, 17:49

LONDON - Thousands of Journalists and technical workers at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have voted to go on strike, trade unions said. Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) voted by 83.9 per cent in favour of strike action. According to an official with BECTU, the broadcasting union, 80 per cent of members had voted to walk out.

Union officials said the strikes by members of the NUJ, BECTU and Amicus, were opening shots in a campaign to persuade the director-general, Mark Thompson, to hold fresh negotiations over his plans to axe 4,000 jobs and make savings of £355 million. Results of a staff ballot showed overwhelming support for strike action. The BBC employs more than 27,000 people.

"Given the scale of the changes the BBC needs to make, and that the unions have not allowed us to talk to them to address their concerns, we are not surprised by the ballot result, but we are disappointed, because we would prefer to continue constructive discussions," BBC management said in a statement responding to the strike action.

With the vote, BBC staffs are expected to stage three days of strike action, blacking out television and radio programmes for 24 hours on 23 May, and for 48 hours on 31 May and 1 June.

A fourth stoppage and future strike dates are still to be announced, but are likely to target high-profile events such as Wimbledon and the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July, after union leaders vowed to create "maximum disruption" for the BBC.

However, viewers and listeners are still likely to be fed a diet of pre-recorded programmes and repeats as the BBC tries to prevent screens and air waves going blank."By threatening the BBC's output, the unions put at risk the BBC's relationship with the public, which is not in anyone's interest," BBC officials said in a statement. "We will, of course, do everything we can to bring the best possible service to viewers and listeners during any industrial action," they further added.

When the BBC last faced major industrial action 10 years ago, it was forced to cut short Breakfast News and replace it with cartoons.