More TV shows face blackout
- Publication: The Times
- Date: 1989-05-10
- Author: Ruth Gledhill
- Page: 1
- Language: English
More BBC television and radio programmes, including the Terry Wogan show and live boxing from the Albert Hall, are likely to be hit today when 12,000 journalists and production staff continue a 48-hour strike over pay.
Live BBC1 programmes, including Breakfast Time, Open Air and Kilroy!, and the Radio 4 programme, Today, were replaced yesterday with cartoons, repeats and documentaries as more than 1,200 staff marched to a rally at the Hammersmith Odeon, west London. The strikers repeated their demands for a pay rise much higher than the 7 per cent offered by management.
Union negotiators, who are due to meet to discuss further strike action on Friday, are likely to consider blacking out live sports coverage such as Wimbledon and Royal Ascot if their demands are not met. Brian Redhead, presenter of
the Today programme, was one of the first journalists to refuse to cross picket lines. A stand-in presenter took the place of Derek Jameson on Radio 2. Radio l's Simon Bates Show was replaced by a repeat of one of the presenter's programmes.
Production was stopped on popular programmes including Dr Who and Variety Express. A recording of a Swansea concert by Dennis O'Neill, the Welsh tenor, was also scrapped.
The scheduled official opening of the £2 million BBC offices and film library complex at Cardiff by Mr Peter Walker, Secretary of State for Wales, was postponed.
Mr Nicholas Witchell, a news reader, who crossed the picket line, said again that he was prepared to work without pay. Mr John Birt, director general of the BBC, and Mr Ron Neil, director of news and current affairs, also crossed the picket lines early in the day, as did Mr Bob Wheaten, editor of Breakfast Time.
They ignored picket-line protesters from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting and Entertainments Trades Alliance (Beta) and the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians.
Staff who crossed picket lines said they could not afford to lose a day's pay. A joint meeting of NUJ chapels and Beta branches passed a resolution calling for further 24-hour strikes after today if the BBC management refuses to negotiate on the pay claim. Mr Don Brind, a BBC news producer at Westminster, father of the NUJ chapel, said: "The BBC is a good employer, but it exploits the fact that people like working there. The BBC will never lead the market in pay. But the gap between us and others is too wide and is widening."
The BBC has rejected a proposed agreement giving staff a phased settlement of an immediate 7 per cent and 3 per cent next January. It said 7 per cent was the final offer.
Mr Marmaduke Hussey, chairman of the BBC, denied yesterday that he had been involved in a decision to reject the union's two-stage pay proposals last week. The claim had been made by a senior NUJ official at the BBC.
A BBC spokesman said: "It was an executive decision that was not referred to the board of governors or the chairman. " The director-general and the director of personnel looked at the figures being suggested by the union, but they were above our final offer of 7 per cent and that was the end of it. There was no conversation with the board of governors."
The only involvement by the board occurred some days caller when they endorsed the "final offer" of 7 per cent, the spokesman said.
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- APA 6th ed.: Gledhill, Ruth (1989-05-10). More TV shows face blackout. The Times p. 1.
- MLA 7th ed.: Gledhill, Ruth. "More TV shows face blackout." The Times [add city] 1989-05-10, 1. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Gledhill, Ruth. "More TV shows face blackout." The Times, edition, sec., 1989-05-10
- Turabian: Gledhill, Ruth. "More TV shows face blackout." The Times, 1989-05-10, section, 1 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=More TV shows face blackout | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/More_TV_shows_face_blackout | work=The Times | pages=1 | date=1989-05-10 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=20 April 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=More TV shows face blackout | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/More_TV_shows_face_blackout | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=20 April 2024}}</ref>
