Unions plan fight against BBC cuts
The BBC's three staff unions have launched a campaign against savage redundancies and budget cuts which were announced today.
At a crisis meeting in London, shortly after the BBC went public over 3,000 planned job losses, BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus representatives voted to stand together in defence of members working for the Corporation.
Read the joint union communiqué
Condemning the plan for cuts drafted by Director-General Mark Thompson, delegates from the three unions pledged to support each other in a battle to protect BBC staff, as well as the BBC's historic obligation to provide high-quality public service broadcasting.
Delegates at the meeting agreed that disruptive action would be co-ordinated across members of all three unions if any section was threatened with compulsory redundancies.
A day of action is planned in early 2005, when the unions will try to persuade politicians and opinion-formers that the BBC will undermine its public service broadcasting role if it goes ahead with the cuts.
BBC staff were still digesting the details of Mark Thompson's cutbacks while union representatives met to decide their response. Many members were angry that they had no clear idea about their futures, despite several months of press speculation, and were left no wiser by the BBC's eventual announcement of job cuts.
Among staff targeted for rapid job cuts or out-sourcing by Thompson - 2,500 Professional Services staff and another 400 in Factual programmes - there has been no clear statement from management about whom might be picked for redundancy.
Union negotiators are due to meet BBC management on Thursday 9th December 2004 to begin talks about the Thompson cuts,