The Newsroom

Unions to ballot on BBC strike

(April 2005)

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IS
Inspector Sands
marksi posted:
This will be a particularly interesting situation if BBC Broadcast staff come out on strike. Given they are being sold off by the current management (for no discernable reason - the BBC have admitted it's not for financial gain), I'd say it's quite possible they will.


Is there a seperate ballot of BBC-B staff or would they have to come out with the rest of us?

Is union membership that high at BBC-B to massively disrupt things?
MA
marksi
[quote="Dog"]
BBC LDN posted:
marksi posted:
I stand by my original comments.


And your colours show...


Comments attributed to me above, are not mine.
MA
marksi
Inspector Sands posted:
marksi posted:
This will be a particularly interesting situation if BBC Broadcast staff come out on strike. Given they are being sold off by the current management (for no discernable reason - the BBC have admitted it's not for financial gain), I'd say it's quite possible they will.


Is there a seperate ballot of BBC-B staff or would they have to come out with the rest of us?

Is union membership that high at BBC-B to massively disrupt things?



From the BECTU website:

Quote:
Officials have not yet finalised the timetable for balloting members, but confirmed that subsidiaries BBC Broadcast and BBC Resources would be involved, in response to the BBC's unwillingness to give guarantees about treatment of staff if they are sold off.

Members in the BBC's Global News division, including BBC World Service, are also due to be balloted - a review currently being conducted by management is expected to result in the announcement of redundancies this summer.


I'm not sure what the level of BECTU membership overall at BBC B is, but I'd think that among playout directors it would be quite high.
UB
Uncle Bruce
Inspector Sands posted:
marksi posted:
This will be a particularly interesting situation if BBC Broadcast staff come out on strike. Given they are being sold off by the current management (for no discernable reason - the BBC have admitted it's not for financial gain), I'd say it's quite possible they will.


Is there a seperate ballot of BBC-B staff or would they have to come out with the rest of us?

Is union membership that high at BBC-B to massively disrupt things?


Not (as an NUJ member) as far as I know. I would imagine Bectu membership at BBC B would be pretty high - and with the sell-off stuff going on, I imagine there are a few people joining too.
RU
Ruski
Uncle Bruce posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
marksi posted:
This will be a particularly interesting situation if BBC Broadcast staff come out on strike. Given they are being sold off by the current management (for no discernable reason - the BBC have admitted it's not for financial gain), I'd say it's quite possible they will.


Is there a seperate ballot of BBC-B staff or would they have to come out with the rest of us?

Is union membership that high at BBC-B to massively disrupt things?


Not (as an NUJ member) as far as I know. I would imagine Bectu membership at BBC B would be pretty high - and with the sell-off stuff going on, I imagine there are a few people joining too.


You imagine incorrectly
UB
Uncle Bruce
Thank God for the psychic powers of my imagination, in that case.
MA
marksi
Uncle Bruce posted:
Thank God for the psychic powers of my imagination, in that case.


The % of overall people who are members is less of an issue than the number of key transmission staff who are members.
UB
Uncle Bruce
Indeed. It'll be interesting to see how - if the members vote yes - the output is affected by this. Last strike most of the regional programmes stayed on-air, from what I remember.
IS
Inspector Sands
BBC-B is an interesting case because all of its operations are now from a new facility therefore any management won't have the operational knowledge to take over. They also don't have a bank of freelance staff avaliable to them. However, their transmission operations (like all such facilities) could run without human contact, but then there is all the prep and ingest work that might not get done

I think regional news will be heavily affected, although possibly not in the 1 or 2 regions where there are no staff cuts. NUJ membership is quite high, certainly a higher proportion than BECTU. Some will have trouble putting out a programme if there is a strike
UB
Uncle Bruce
Inspector Sands posted:


I think regional news will be heavily affected, although possibly not in the 1 or 2 regions where there are no staff cuts. NUJ membership is quite high, certainly a higher proportion than BECTU. Some will have trouble putting out a programme if there is a strike


Depends if they take the union philosophy of one out, all out.
DU
Dunedin
News 24 NUJ members are on "work to rule" next week according to Media Guardian....have they been balloted yet?
AN
Ant
Dunedin posted:
News 24 NUJ members are on "work to rule" next week according to Media Guardian....have they been balloted yet?

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