A RALLY, as part of strike action against the BBC by members of the National Union of Journalists, is being staged tomorrow outside the headquarters of BBC Scotland, in Glasgow.
The action concerns new pension arrangements being proposed by the BBC, which have been accepted by the largest trade union in the BBC, BECTU. But the NUJ is seeking further improvement of terms amended by management when it faced a boycott of coverage of the Tory Party coverage early last month.
The strike action is scheduled to spill over into Saturday and then later this month. In Scotland, it’s likely that news programming will be the worst hit, including Good Morning Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland and Reporting Scotland on TV during the early evening.
The rally is between 11.30am and 12.30am and is expected to be attended by, as well as NUJ members, MSPs, MPs and members of sister trade unions.
There will also be NUJ pickets at BBC offices in Edinburgh, Shetland, Orkney, Aberdeen and Inverness. There are around 250 NUJ members at BBC Scotland.
On Saturday, NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, will be speaking at a meeting being hosted by the Falkirk Trades Union Council. The event, taking place in Camelon Community Education Centre at 11am, will also include Dave Moxham, deputy general secretary of the STUC, and Jennifer McCarey of the Poverty Alliance’s Living Wage campaign.
A statement issued by the NUJ says: “The National Union of Journalists has called two 48-hour strikes at the BBC against plans to dismantle the staff pension scheme.
“Union members voted by more than nine to one in favour of industrial action.
“Now, despite two overwhelming votes against the BBC’s proposals, management are preparing to impose a cocktail of arrangements which will effectively destroy the final salary scheme and replace it with one which will require staff to pay substantially more in return for substantially less in benefits.
“In a second ballot last month, NUJ members again voted comprehensively to reject the current proposals as neither fair nor acceptable and we are united and determined to take this action to stop the BBC from robbing hard-working members of staff of the benefits they were promised.”
