Strike Brings BBC to Standstill

[chlamor]

Strike brings BBC to standstill

Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Monday May 23, 2005
The Guardian

A strike today by up to 11,000 BBC journalists, producers and technicians over a move to cut 4,000 jobs will drastically alter radio and TV schedules.

Politicians, newspaper editors and more than six million other listeners who start their day with Radio 4's Today will be hit, with the familiar tones of John Humphrys and James Naughtie replaced by recorded comedy and drama.

The 24-hour strike ends at midnight tonight, followed by a 48-hour stoppage next week. There is widespread anger across the corporation at director general Mark Thompson's aim to do away with one in five BBC jobs and cut budgets by 15% across the board in order to release £355m to reinvest in programming within three years.

<snip>

However, the unions want a 90-day moratorium on the cuts, no compulsory redundancies, and a promise to negotiate over total job losses. Otherwise, the next strike will go ahead a week tomorrow for 48-hours, with the promise of further action into summer.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1490109,00.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Wow a media that

actually fights injustice.

I am so jealous.

[BiggJawn]

2. I was starting to listen to the WS today, when they mentioned...

...the "Industrial Action".
I shut it off. And I felt badly about having listened to R. Sweden's DRM broadcast, because the transmitter it came over is owned by the BBC, too.

[CatholicEdHead]

3. BBC has been under fire lately

Part of it is the UK government workings in that Ruphert Murdoch and others are working behind the scenes to undermine the BBC for BSkyB (Sky News) broadcasts, which is the UK version of Fox News. In other words, a more private, profit driven business model away from the public model the BBC is based on.

[UpInArms]

4. related: News blackout at BBC as 11,000 strike over job cuts

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1624137,00.html

Thousands of BBC journalists and technicians mounted a 24-hour strike today forcing flagship programmes off the air including Radio 4's Today, which was replaced by the comedy show I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue.

Although union leaders failed in their attempt to reduce the service to "blank screens and dead air", rolling news broadcasts on radio and television were severely disrupted following the walkout at midnight.

There was some comfort for BBC managers when a series of high profile presenters chose to break the strike.

<snip>

The industrial action, which is supported by up to 11,000 of the corporation's 27,000 staff, has been launched in protest at the loss of 3,780 jobs over the next three years and across-the-board budget cuts of 15 per cent.

...more...

[D-Notice]

5. It was a bit weird listening to the radio this morning

There was a different guy on the 6 Music breakfast show & Radio 5 didn't have any breakfast show - there was a repeat of an episode of 606.

Radio 1 & 2 didn't seem that affected - the normal people were on... Guess they ingored the pickets

[Moderator]

6. kick to combine

[chlamor]

7. TV Stars: Why We Crossed BBC Picket Line

TV stars: why we crossed BBC picket line

Lisa O'Carroll, Jason Deans and Julia Day
Monday May 23, 2005

Terry Wogan and business presenter Declan Curry today defended their decision to cross the picket lines at the BBC, where workers are striking in protest at 4,000 proposed job cuts.

Widespread disruption was caused to television and radio programmes, but a significant number of presenters turned up for work, including Radio 5's Shelagh Fogarty, to help the BBC deliver a limited service to licence payers. Curry, the only presenter to turn up for work on BBC1's breakfast show, said he did not support the strike and hoped fellow workers would respect his decision.

<snip>

Curry was one of the few TV presenters who turned up for work. The lunchtime news, which was due to be anchored by George Alagiah and Sian Williams, was cancelled and replaced by a simultaneous broadcast with BBC News 24 presented by Susan Osman, a former regional TV presenter.

<snip>

NUJ hails 'astonishing success'

The National Union of Journalists said this morning the strike at the BBC had been an "astonishing success". The union's general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said a number of the corporation's flagship programmes had been hit both at national and regional level.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1490230,00.html

[makhno]

8. Assholes

Imagine going to work with pricks you know don't have your back? What a terrible situation.

[bunkerbuster1]

9. Welcome to the working week.

Dunno about the UK, but "going to work with pricks you know don't have your back" sounds like a typical day at the office to most Americans.

[makhno]

10. Sad, isn't it

Office politics is inevitable, but to brazenly disrespect the will of the majority of your fellow workers by crossing a picket line is, to me, unconscionable.

How are these tools going to get anything done when the strikers come back to work? Payback should be sweet.

[Henny Penny]

13. Could it be....

that the jobs of those particular "assholes" aren't the ones on the line!

[makhno]

14. Could be

Doesn't change the fact that crossing a picket line shows a complete lack of morality.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

11. The Big Picture - "End of the BBC as we know it"

From the linked article:


'End of the BBC as we know it'

Another Bectu representative, who did not want to be named, said he had worked for the BBC since 1968 and had seen half a dozen strikes, but said that the latest dispute was by far the most serious.

"I see this as being the end of the BBC as we know it," he said. "Before, it was jobs we were worried about, but this is threatening the fabric of broadcasting in the BBC. If you undermine the way it is organised, it is just going to crumble."

At 8.30am Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley arrived for work. She made no comment as she walked into the building but did take a strike leaflet from union members.

Just before 8.30am a car arrived from LBC carrying 200 croissants to feed picketing workers outside BBC Television Centre in west London.

Striking staff had formed picket lines outside all the major entrances this morning.

Union representatives were using handheld video cameras to film the trickle of workers who ignored signs urging them not to cross picket lines.

One union steward said the protest was receiving a good response and the union was hoping many other employees would join them at lunchtime.

"It looks like a lot of people have stayed at home," he said.

Union leaders were hoping that 11,000 of the BBC's 25,000-plus workforce would go out on strike, with live news on radio and TV severely hit by 9am this morning.

[Henny Penny]

12. The bbc despite its faults keeps producing some very good

current affairs and documentaries, a la The Power of Nightmares, and I'm afraid it is no surprise that certain quarters would like to see it crumble.

You can bet, if the job cuts go through, the new programming will be more along the lines of "Pet Makeover" and "Celebrity House Sitting"!

[rfkrfk]

15. scabs n/t