Strike action by BBC technical engineers may affect the Corporation’s coverage of this year’s World Cup matches. Bectu, the union which represents the striking staff, is threatening the action to protest against BBC plans to create a subsidiary unit of staff who will be contracted out to other organisations.
Bectu is concerned that this development is the beginning of a larger scale privatisation of the broadcaster. It is asking that the BBC guarantees certain contract terms and conditions, and that there will not be any compulsory redundancies. So far the BBC has not agreed to this.
The technicians’ strike yesterday knocked out a number of key news and current affairs programmes and Radio 4 played classical music to replace its live programmes. Another strike is scheduled for 9 June, and Bectu yesterday indicated that it would be willing to usurp the all-important coverage of World Cup ’98 if its demands were not met.
BBC TV Centre: 0181 743 8000
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