UTV members lobby NI Assembly

A deputation of BECTU members fighting redundancies in Ulster Television has met all the main Northern Ireland political parties.

The deputation held meetings with the SDLP, Sinn Fein, and the Ulster Unionist Party on the day that the new Northern Ireland Assembly took office.

Despite the political rows over the Good Friday Agreement, senior figures from all three parties gave their time to listen to the union's argument that Ulster Television was contributing less to the local economy than it had promised when awarded its ITC licence.

The company last month announced 35 redundancies only weeks after declaring a record profit of £12m, and has been slammed by the union for failing to live up to its promises on original programme production.

In its licence application nearly 10 years ago, UTV stated its "aspiration" to make 11 hours a year of locally produced programming for network transmission. However, by 1999, its actual new production has dropped to only 1 hour, and the Chief Executive is said to have questioned why the company should be required to produce any programmes at all.

BECTU has voiced worries that the company could be run-down and sold off, citing as evidence the scrapping of a satellite news team based in Londonderry, key to the provision of local news.

Tension came to a head earlier this year, when the company proposed a round of redundancies, and the ending of a profit related pay scheme which, thanks to this year's bumper profit, has put thousands of pounds into individual pay packets.

BECTU plans to keep up its pressure on UTV by continuing a political campaign among parties who may divided on constitutional issues, but are united in their call for jobs to be retained in Northern Ireland.