Young workers prominent on BBC picket lines

Programmes and services across the BBC were affected on Friday 5 November by the strike against changes to the pension scheme.
 

Jane James and Chris Newby

In the last few days some members of BECTU have been joining the NUJ because BECTU have accepted the pension attacks.
 

Young BBC workers have also been joining the union because penison proposals are worse for them.
There were some younger NUJ members on picket lines for whom this was their first strike action.
 

Their leaflet states that BBC workers could lose between £10,000 and up to £100,000 if planned changes to pensions are imposed. Changes will mean staff paying more, working longer or getting significantly lower pensions, even though the amount of any pension scheme deficit will not be known till next year.
 

Meanwhile senior BBC executives will still get £1million pay offs and pensions of up to £230,000 a year!
Given the level of disruption on radio it seems the strike has been quite effective. World service was particularly badly affected and on Radio 4 the Today programme was off air. One of the pickets at Bush House reported that the BBC rely on a big pool of casual staff which they were attempting to use that day.
 

One of the younger pickets at Portland Place said that there had been a growing number of young people starting work there and joining the NUJ. Previously young people with IT training would not choose the BBC as their first option as they could get better paid elsewhere, but with the job cuts in the private sector there were fewer opportunities in this area and were now looking to get work at the BBC.