BBC Journalists Stage 48-Hour Walkout Protesting Cutbacks in Pension Plans
British Broadcasting Corp. journalists started a 48-hour strike over pensions today, forcing the state-funded broadcaster to curtail programs and run pre-recorded shows.
The National Union of Journalists’ 4,100 members at the BBC, the world’s oldest public-service broadcaster, are striking in protest over management plans to cut its estimated 1.5 billion-pound ($2.4 billion) pension-fund deficit by capping increases in pensionable pay.
The BBC News 24 television channel ran old feature material today, news bulletins are not running on the 6 Music radio channel and Simon Mayo’s show on Radio 5 Live has been replaced by repeats.
The change to the pensions system “fails BBC staff,” NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said in a statement on the union’s website on Nov. 2. “BBC journalists are not asking for higher pensions.” They are asking for “a deal that means what has been promised to them -- which they have already paid for -- is protected,” he said.
The BBC, which employs about 23,000 staff, is funded by an annual television license fee, paid by anyone using a television set in the U.K. The broadcaster is under increased financial pressure after the government’s spending review on Oct. 20, in which it was announced the license fee would be frozen for six years and the corporation would take over funding the World Service channels from the Foreign Office.
Strike Support
A total of 70 percent of NUJ members voted against the BBC’s latest pensions proposals. Well-known British broadcasters including Fiona Bruce, Huw Edwards and Martha Kearney have joined the strike, according to the Daily Telegraph. A further 48-hour stoppage is planned to start on Nov. 15.
BBC 5 Live, a radio channel, was forced to run taped shows, and flagship news programs including Radio Four’s Today, Good Morning Scotland and The World Today have been disrupted or canceled, according to the NUJ.
Members of the Bectu broadcasting union, which represents technical and production staff, have refused to cross pickets at four BBC offices, according to the NUJ. Bectu voted in favor of the amended pension deal last month.
Mass walk-outs have taken place at the corporation’s Scotland headquarters in Glasgow, as well as one of its central London offices, Bush House, the union said.
Pickets have also been posted at BBC offices in Kabul, Los Angeles and Istanbul.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Jordan in London at jjordan22@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at ckeatinge@bloomberg.net.
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