Strike threats of BBC staff
TV and radio output across Northamptonshire may be affected as the BBC is facing the threat of strikes after thousands of journalists, technicians and other staff voted massively in favour of industrial action in a row over pensions.
Members of the National Union of Journalists and the technicians' union Bectu backed walkouts by more than 9-1 in protest at "punitive" changes to the staff pension scheme.
Unions held back from naming strike dates so that talks can be held over the next two weeks to resolve the dispute and avert strikes.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of Bectu, said: "This is a significant mandate for strikes, which demonstrates how out of touch BBC executives are with their staff. We hope they will now come up with more realistic proposals, otherwise we will have no alternative but to call industrial action."
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: "This is a clear rejection of the BBC's proposals. We have agreed to give them two weeks to come back with an improved offer or face a concerted campaign of industrial action."
The BBC currently produces Radio Northampton and the evening news programme Look East for the area. It has not yet emerged whether programming would be directly affected by any strike action.
The threat of strikes follows a BBC announcement of plans to cap pensionable pay at one per cent from next April and revalue pensions at a lower level, which unions said effectively devalued pensions already earned.
BBC management said the changes were needed to try to tackle a 1.5 billion pension deficit. Director general Mark Thompson said: "We expect to announce full details in the middle of September and this will trigger an additional consultation period."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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