BBC Braced For 48-Hour Stoppage Next Week

(From Guardian/UK -- By Lisa O'Carroll)

Thousands of BBC staff returned to work this morning, but viewers and listeners face two more days of severe disruption to live programs next week with unions saying there were no signs yet of concessions from management.

Staff unions, who launched a 24-hour strike that finished at midnight last night, say management do not seem to have taken on board the grievances felt by those facing almost 4,000 redundancies.

Monday live programming on TV and radio was severely disrupted, with RADIO 4's TODAY program and BBC 2's NEWSNIGHT taken off air and coverage of the opening of the CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW, one of the biggest outside broadcasts of the year, abandoned.

A similar level of disruption is set for next Tuesday and Wednesday, when a 48-hour strike is planned.

"I will be writing to the BBC today to express the hope that they have heard the voice of their staff, but from the interviews they have given there is no sign that they have taken on board today's lesson," said JEREMY DEAR, the general secretary of the NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS.

He told BBC NEWS 24 this morning that the unions would rather not go on strike next week and were willing to enter talks, but only if "meaningful negotiations" were on the agenda.

BBC management are holding firm with the director general, MARK THOMPSON, claiming said job cuts and privatisations were "a price worth paying to see a strong BBC in the long-term."

And today the deputy director general, MARK BYFORD, maintained that line, telling BBC NEWS 24 it was impossible to achieve the planned 335 million savings a year without compulsory redundancies.

BBC bosses are hoping staff anger will have dissipated by next week and have taken comfort in the fact that they managed to keep some sort of service on air for the 24-hour duration of Monday's strike even if it did mean endless repeats on radio and TV.

While last night's NEWSNIGHT was cancelled altogether, the BBC managed to put out the second scheduled programme on THE CHELSEA FLOWE SHOW with presenters ALAN TITCHMARSH and DIARMUID GAVIN.

The show covering the opening of the annual gardening festival had to be abandoned in the morning but the evening catch-up coverage was salvaged by a crew of freelancers, much to the anger of unions.

TV news remained severely disrupted, however, with STEPHEN COLE, a virtually unknown BBC WORLD presenter who once fancied his chances as a movie star, reading a limited bulletin at 10 pm at BBC 1. And viewers in London waiting for their local update were treated to a flickering line across a black screen for the full five minutes of the regional bulletin.

Privately BBC bosses do not know what concessions they can offer and there will be little comfort from the coverage of the strike in today's newspapers, all of which predict further disruption as inevitable.

There is also talk that unions plan a summer of guerrilla action, with staff targetting high-profile events including the G8 SUMMIT AT GLENEAGLES and the WIMBLEDON TENNIS TOURNANMENT. Unions are also looking at a working to the letter of their contracts, downing tools at lunchtime and refusing to do more senior jobs than they are contracted to do.

Viewers and listeners have also thanked the BBC for the alternative programs -- listeners wrote to the TODAY program saying it was a pleasure to hear the dulcet tones of NICHOLAS PARSONS, who presented a replacement of the JUST A MINUTE QUIZ. Another listener asked if there would be a rebate for one day's wasted listening time.