Rock solid strike at the BBC - on every continent!
by Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser 05-11-10
The first day of strike action by NUJ members in the BBC was a roaring success. NUJ members across Scotland and the entire UK have been rock solid in their action. Only handfuls of senior managers have tried to run a scab service- with laughable results. One shamefully produced early morning radio news lifted straight from world news services, with only two Scottish items tagged on at the very end; reference to the fact BBC staff were on strike only just preceded the stunning news that a lollipop man retired today somewhere in Scotland!
Not to be outdone on the farce stakes, senior managers produced a TV feature on aeroplanes from the First World War – featuring a photo of Adolf Hitler!!
The huge crowd of pickets at the Glasgow office thoroughly enjoyed these examples and others of how senior managers can’t do workers’ jobs.
As NUJ president Pete Murray described to the strikers’ rally on the steps of the Pacific Quay building, today was not just a local but global success. They had pickets at every Scottish mainland building – but also for the first time ever on Orkney and Shetland. And pickets on every continent! Places like Washington, Beijing, Lagos, Johannesburgh…and Kabul – where the reporters risking life and limb reporting the war in Afghanistan have joined the NUJ en masse and staged a picket line.
A flood of messages poured in by text and email – from as far afield as Mt Vesuvius!
The strikers’ rally boosted morale further. It was addressed by local NUJ FOC Dave Eyre; NUJ president Pete Murray; representatives of the Fire Brigades Union, Musicians Union, and UNITE; Dave Moxham, assistant general secretary of the STUC; and representatives of three political parties: SNP MSP Christine McKelvie, Labour MP Tom Harris, and Scottish Socialist Party national trade union organiser Richie Venton.
The strikers are furious at the injustices of huge cuts to their deferred wages, whilst top BBC bosses enjoy pensions of £200,000 and more.
This action is part of a broader struggle to defend pension rights – and the vital public service they provide.
As I said when speaking at the strikers’ rally, “BBC journalists play a vital public role in trying to scrutinise and hold politicians and others in power to account. Cuts and demoralising attacks on conditions undermine the ability to carry out that public service. When one of those in power, millionaire Cameron, announces 16 per cent cuts to the BBC and describes these cuts as ‘delicious’, he should have his ‘delicious’ words rammed right back down his throat by the power of united strike action.”