Election could be a BBC battleground

DISRUPTION of the coverage of the General Election and mass walkouts at BBC Scotland are weapons that could be used in the battle to fight the BBC job cuts. Union leaders have called for a three month pause in the plans to cut almost 4,000 jobs in the Corporation, and will run a ballot if the demand is rejected.

The National Union of Journalists, Bectu and Amicus have repeated their pledge to ballot for industrial action if there are any compulsory redundancies, and staff have made clear their opposition to the 176 job losses in both journalist and office posts - including finance, marketing and personnel.

Paul McManus, Scottish organiser for Bectu said the atmosphere at BBC Scotland’s headquarters at Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow was "horrible, stemming mostly from disbelief". He said no-one could understand the rationale behind the cuts as BBC Scotland is not over budget and work had not disappeared.

"There is extreme anger in BBC Scotland among all staff, not just our members, about management’s cavalier attitude to the job losses. They are ready to erupt and there is every likelihood of industrial action, but we need a campaign to deliver the best results. Normally in this type of situation, morale goes through the floor, but in this case the anger is rising rapidly."

Not all members of staff in Glasgow believe industrial action is the way forward. One Bectu member, who asked not to be named, says: "Striking will just play into the hands of [Mark] Thompson [the Director General]. We have to be professional - unlike him - and get political support. The Board of Governors have already been discredited by the Green paper. Why did they have the right to approve his plans?" Another Glasgow staffer disagreed and said industrial action might be the only way to bring results: "We should ballot for strike action now. It’s the only way to fight the cuts. Disrupting the General Election coverage would be a good start."

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, questioned how the BBC could meet the challenges of the future by axing frontline jobs.

Details of the Scottish cuts, which represent more than 13 per cent of BBC Scotland staff, were revealed by the controller of BBC Scotland, Ken McQuarrie. He says the cuts were designed to provide investment for new programmes and services.

Of the 176 content and output jobs in Scotland to be shed as part of the redundancy programme, 62 posts will be lost in television production, 42 in News and Current Affairs, and 22 in radio.

Other losses will be from presentation, administration, interactive and the project which is arranging the move to a new build headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. The casualties include six executive and programme editor posts, four senior broadcast journalists, three correspondents or reporters, two TV broadcast journalists, three video editors, 2.5 radio broadcast journalist posts, the equivalent of four TV crews and one news assistant.

It is understood that Sally McNair, the TV newsreader, had to broadcast a piece about the cuts knowing her husband Phil Taylor’s post as network editor, was on the hit list. Radio newsreader, Anne Scott, had to do the same, knowing that her job was also disappearing.

MacQuarrie says that a radical redrawing of the BBC Scotland management structure will also take place. There have been concerns within BBC Scotland that the proposed cuts were already in the pipeline - to reduce staff for the move to smaller premises on the Clyde.

This was dismissed by a spokesman for BBC Scotland. He says: "We always knew that Pacific Quay would require fewer people as it would be built to use new technology and new ways of working, but it does have four floors and there is no truth in the rumours we planned these cuts."

The morale across all departments in BBC Scotland is mixed, according to insiders, with the job cuts coming as a shock.

A senior BBC executive said: "Despite us knowing it was inevitable, it was still a bolt. This has never happened before. Although there has been talk for the last three to four months, when you see the figures, reality kicks in. Some staff seem relieved purely because it gets rid of the uncertainty."

Mark Thompson has been heavily criticised by the unions for the latest jobs cuts, which now total almost 3,800, and warned he was putting the future of the organisation at risk. Thompson told BBC staff: "We are going through the toughest period any of us can remember. It’s a difficult and painful process but necessary. We need to free up money to start investing in our digital future, to end our current Charter in December 2006 on budget and to show we are serious about providing value for money."

Stephen Low, the NUJ father of chapel (shop steward) for the BBC in Glasgow and Edinburgh, says that the management wanted "to take a scythe to the programmes which the licence fee-payers of the country fund".

Low says: "These cuts and budget savings are well beyond what the government has ever asked of the BBC. All the unions believe this attack on jobs and programmes is driven in large part by the demands of major independent production companies, who want a slice of the licence fee to pay their shareholders."

"We don’t believe that’s what most licence fee payers want, and all the unions will fight this attempt to rip the heart out of the most respected public service broadcaster in the world."