Granada facing strike ballot
Union members in Granada Group are balloting on action after rejecting a pay offer.
If industrial action is approved when the ballot closes on November 25, disruption could hit Granada Manchester and Liverpool, LWT, Yorkshire TV, Tyne Tees TV, Border and Meridian.
Granada's pay offer, worth 2% over 21 months and linked to changes in other benefits, was rejected by BECTU members in a postal ballot.
The union's Assistant General Secretary Gerry Morrissey said: "The company refused to introduce a minimum annual salary of just £13,000, while at the same time finding it acceptable to pay one member of staff more than a million pounds a year".
Controversial changes in benefits, which were part of the pay offer, included the closure of the company's final salary pension scheme to new members, cuts in sick pay entitlement for staff with less than 8 years' service, and a switch of maternity benefits from a guaranteed right to a discretionary benefit.
Concern over changes to the pension fund was heightened among staff when Granada's annual report confirmed that full pension entitlements would still be available to senior executives who might be hired in the future.
ITV unions have written to Granada and Carlton in response to the merger announced last week, demanding assurances on jobs, regional programming and regional news. "Without these assurances we will be opposing the consolidation," commented Gerry Morrissey. He has requested an urgent meeting to discuss this.
"The ballot for strike action is as much about the frustration of Granada staff across the company that they are not being listened to, as it is about pay and conditions of service", said Morrissey.
"Yet again staff believe that management is acting hypocritically in refusing to implement the most basic safeguards against poverty for the workforce while continuing to feather management's nest.
"In relation to pay, mergers or anything else, the viewers and staff come last and share value takes a much higher priority. They need to put money into programmes but they will not achieve high quality productions if they treat the programme-making staff in this way."
The unions have accused Granada of ignoring its obligations to the regions, under the terms of its various ITV franchises. Transmission departments in Cardiff, Southampton and Norwich are facing closure which representatives predict will lead to job losses and a concentration of transmission in London.
Ballot papers will be mailed to BECTU's Granada members on November 11.