Today 80% of NUJ members at the BBC Arabic service in Broadcasting House at Oxford Circus voted for strike action.Previous BBC strikes involving BBC staff have been confident, angry and vibrant. 'Long live the revolution and death to the management' were chanted in Urdu - 'Inklab Zindabad wa Management murbadad'
i look forward to the next pickets. Details of which will be posted here as soon as i know.
I am informed by my sources that this strike is even more significant because the Arabic service has only just been set up (in competetion with Al Jajeera) and a succesful campaign would be a major embarassment for the Beeb.
Even before th NUJ had time to circulate the results of the ballot, the BBC management panicked and sent a snivelling 2 1/2 page email, trying to explain what the strike action is about, to the ENTIRE workforce....
In this email management said that 'the reasons for the ballot are unclear'. They claim that they have offered a 'comprehensive package...including shorter night shifts, a 37.5 hour working week, more staff than originally planned and further training and development'.
They complain that changes to shift patterns would cost them an extra £1.5 million and threaten the closure of other World Service language services in order to pay for this.
Further, they state that 'BBC Arabic staff are not working longer hours than elsewhere in the BBC' and that 'extra staff would mean that BBC Arabic are better staffed than the other BBC news outlets'.
They acknowledge that there has been some 'frustration' due to the amount of change in the last 2 years but refute the necessity of strike action claiming that 'any strike action would be unjustifiable'...and would 'jeopordise the high level of esteem BBC Arabic atracts from audiences'.
Management worry that these demands would lead to hard questions from their funders about all their services.
In the statement from NUJ to memebers we read: "Ultimately, this dispute is about what's needed to produce quality broadcastig. To be a success, the extension of the BBC's Arabic services to a 24-hour operation must be fully funded..."
NUJ Broadcasting Organiser stresses that the Arabic Service members have not entered into this strike lightly. They rightly rejected managements calls for an undemocratic e-mail vote, fully aware that distance voting destroys an open and fair debate and ultimately would only produce a result that mangement could accuse of being undemocratic. No one in their right mind should believe that distance voting could provide a reasonable assessment of the rank and file mood.
NUJ insist that strike action is the only option available to 'ensure that management listen to their concerns'
Read the NUJ report here
1 comment:
They complain that changes to shift patterns would cost them an extra £1.5 million and threaten the closure of other World Service language services in order to pay for this.
Remind me again how much Jonathan Ross gets paid?
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