The phone-tapping scandal is the beginning of a popular movement for a free Press, Labour veteran Tony Benn told a packed public meeting last week in London (see previous post), writes Chris Youett.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the NUJ and pressure group Defend the Right to Protest at Conway Hall, former BBC current affairs journalist Benn added: “The influence of Rupert Murdoch is so baleful.  He has been a very negative force in British politics.  He is the most powerful man in the world.

“Governments don’t want us to know anything about what they did for 30 years – and the phone-tapping scandal is the beginning of a movement for a free Press.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The 5 and 6 November saw a magnificent turnout in the strike over the BBC managers attack on pensions. There were picket lines from the Isle of Jersey to Glasgow and from Cornwall to Edinburgh. Thousands went on strike and received great support from other trade unionists, members of the public. It was also reported that many Bectu members refused to cross the picket lines with some joining the NUJ so they could go out on strike. Many non-union staff members also refused to cross the picket lines.

Read the rest of this entry »

Statement from NUJ asking for support for BBC journalists on strike

Dear colleague,

Can you afford to simply give away £100,000, £25,000 or even ‘just’ £10,000? Of course not.

But those are the kinds of sums every journalist faces losing under the BBC’s latest pension proposal.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new leaflet, Open Channel, has been issued by BBC staff against the pensions robbery.

Latest leaflet from BBC reps against the pensions offer

Under the name, Open Channel, a coalition of NUJ and Bectu reps are campaigning for a no vote in the ballot on the BBC’s latest pension offer.

Download a copy here to read and distribute to your work colleagues. Here are highlights of the leaflet below.


Read the rest of this entry »

“The leader of the National Union of Journalists is calling on the BBC to abandon a planned cut to staff pensions and come clean about the true finances of the corporation’s pension scheme,” says the Workers United Blog

Figures linked to BBC staff show that the pension deficit is less than £1 billion – the BBC management claim that it is nearly £2 billion.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear has called on the BBC to come clean on the figures and negotiate a sensible solution.

The leak comes at a time when union reps at the BBC are campaigning for a NO vote in the ballot on the latest offer.

Here’s the story about the leaked figures

This is the text of a leaflet put out by union reps at the BBC calling for a “NO” vote to the latest pension offer. You can download a copy here

BBC staff Leaflet calling for NO vote (pic: Guy Smallman)

The BBC Pensions Robbery: It’s our decision now…
We are a cross-section of union reps from across the BBC and we think you should vote ‘No’ in the consultative ballot on the BBC’s CAB 2011 pension plans.
We believe the BBC unions were right to suspend the strikes earlier this month. It has given all of us a chance to see the progress, which our negotiators have made, but it has also allowed BBC staff to scrutinise what is on offer. It is not fair and it is not acceptable. BBC staff have the right to demand that Mark Thompson offers them a pension which will allow them a decent, secure standard of living in retirement.
That’s what we were promised. So far, none of his alternatives to scrapping the Final Salary Pension Scheme gives us that.

You should vote ‘NO’ because…
CAB 2011 means staff will be expected to pay more, to work longer and get less back for their retirement. The BBC has refused to consider the unions’ calls to protect our pensions against rising costs of living in the future. You risk losing more than 20% of your pension to inflation under the current plan. The BBC’s “final” offer was no such thing. Negotiations are still going on and management have continued to amend key elements of their proposals. BBC staff are not demanding “featherbedding” or “gold-plated” pensions. The current average pension for BBC staff is £12,500.
That’s somewhere between the pension of a fire-fighter and a police officer. We trust our negotiators to try to secure the best they can for us. We no longer trust the BBC senior executives who have told each other they think staff “will fall for it” when they tell us they have made their final offer.

Don’t be scared to vote ‘NO’
If you vote “yes” in the consultative ballot, you are saying the BBC plans are acceptable. A strong “No” vote puts BBC staff back in the driving seat. It means we are telling our negotiators and telling Mark Thompson that CAB 2011 is not fair, it is not acceptable and we will go on strike if the BBC does not give us what
we were promised – a pension that is secure into the future and is valuable for younger people with a life of work ahead of them.

Signatories:
Peter Murray, Glasgow Chapel, NUJ President; Tory Blair, BBC London Branch,
NUJ Secondee; Ian Pollock, BBC London Branch, former Pensions Trustee; Bríd
Fitzpatrick, Newcastle; Paul Mason, Newsnight, Zarghuna Kargar, Afghan Service,
Paula Dear, News Interactive, Simon Vaughan, Westminster; Michael Workman,
World Service News; Julie Clayton, Cumbria; Jeremy Aspinall, BBC Worldwide;
David Eyre, Glasgow/Edinburgh; Becky Brandford, BBC Ineractive,;Jonathan
Brunert, Panorama/White City; Andy Comfort, Hull; David Campanale, World TV;
Dimitry Linnik, Russian service; Jane Anderson, Worldwide; Lesley Taylor, Radio
Newsroom; Jon Kelly, News Interactive

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear predicted the BBC is facing a “winter of growing discontent” over pensions, cuts and jobs.

Speaking as voting was set to begin in a consultative ballot over the BBC’s latest pensions proposals he predicted NUJ members would vote ‘No’ and strike action would become “inevitable” unless the BBC revisited the latest offer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pete Murray, NUJ President and BBC rep, will be speaking on the BBC dispute this Saturday in London.

NUJ members at the BBC voted nine to one recently to strike over the BBC’s attack on their pensions. They have been joined by Bectu and Unite members in a concerted campaign against the proposals. The threat of strike action forced the BBC into making a last-ditch offer last Friday, which the three unions have taken back to their members. Pete will be updating the meeting on the latest.

Read the rest of this entry »

Staff at the BBC are striking on the 5 and 6 October over threats to their pensions. The national strike will take BBC’s coverage of the Tory Party conference off the airwaves. There will also be two-days of strikes later this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, the BBC’s Newsbeat programme interviewed two “ordinary” members of the BNP and gave them anonymity. It transpired that rather than being just any old members, the two were leading lights. The BBC has now admitted that it broke its own code in not reporting who the two were and that their views should have been challenged more. Press Gazette has the story