Walkout begins in BBC TV News
Pickets gather outside BBC TV Centre as the strike starts
Nearly 100 BECTU members working for BBC News have taken strike action over new working patterns.
Industrial action in the department that provides engineering and IT support for BBC News programmes began at 22.00 today, November 14, and is due to continue for the next 24 hours.
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Members working in News Production Facilities who were on duty at the start of the strike walked out of BBC buildings in West London and a political programme centre in Millbank, Westminster,
Picket lines were established, and a union presence is expected outside the affected buildings throughout Wednesday November 15, the day of the State Opening of Parliament.
Union officials reported that support for the strike was solid among members who had voted by a majority of 95% earlier this month to take action.
The dispute that led to the strike was sparked off when BBC managers announced that existing shift and rota patterns were to be thrown into disarray in January 2007.
Dozens of staff in the News Production Facilities area have left the BBC on voluntary redundancy terms under DG Mark Thompson's cost-cutting reorganisation in the last year, and managers were hoping to fill the gaps by calling the remaining staff into work more often and sometimes without adequate notice of work obligations.
Talks between BECTU and BBC News failed to resolve the dispute, and tempers flared when staff were told that the changes in rotas and local working practices would be imposed without agreement.
BECTU has emphasised that if the plan to implement unwelcome changes in January 2007 were suspended, union negotiators would be willing to sit round a bargaining table with management to resolve differences.
However, no formal approach has been made by the BBC since the strike was announced, and the union is committed to calling further strike action on November 23 and 24 if negotiations are not re-opened.