BBC Journalists On Strike

LONDON: Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) working for the BBC have launched a 48-hour strike, taking action against changes to pension plans.

The NUJ has 4,100 members out of a total BBC workforce of 17,500. The BBC has said that it is doing everything it can to go about programming as usual, though there are disruptions with radio and television schedules. A BBC press statement said: "We are disappointed that the NUJ have gone ahead with today’s industrial action. This is despite the other four unions accepting our revised offer, and feedback from staff that indicates the same. It is the public who lose out and we apologize to our audience for any disruption to services."

The dispute focuses on planned changes to the pension system that have been rejected by the union. Jeremy Dear, the NUJ general secretary, said that the BBC "left members with no choice but to take action to defend their pensions." He added, "NUJ members across the BBC have consistently dubbed the proposals a pensions robbery. That hasn’t changed."

BBC director-general Mark Thompson made an appeal to staff before the strike, which he said would mean "significant loss of earnings" for NUJ members "without any advantage or benefit in return." He also told BBC members of other broadcasting unions that they would be expected to work. "The public—many of whom are facing difficult employment and economic pressures—will find it very hard to understand why the BBC’s service to them should be impaired in this way," Thompson wrote in an email to BBC staff.

Thompson describes the corporation’s pension offer as a "fair one" that had changed "in significant and positive ways" following negotiations with staff and unions. He added: "The BBC belongs to the British public and has a duty to deliver programmes and services of the highest quality to them every day of the year. They rely on us. We must not let them down."

Another two day strike is planned for November 15 and 16, with threats to make further disruption over Christmas.