To The Barricades

Michael Hedges May 26, 2005

BBC employee unions and management are at the arbitration table today, actually separate rooms. Public service broadcasting faces yet another dilemma.

BBC employees made good on their promise to strike last Monday, bringing a halt to popular programs for one day. Earlier this year employees of Radio France, Danmarks Radio and Portuguese public broadcaster RTP walked out. The reasons are always the same: tough decisions are not happy decisions.

Labor actions by public broadcasting employees remind viewers and listeners that journalists, producers and technicians are people, too.  Cancelled programs and re-arranged schedules anger some, bemuse others. Most often the dialogue between labor and management in public sector broadcasting is good, but not great. And quite often the issues raised are the same as those raised by all public sector workers. 

BBC General Director Mark Thompson, toiling under the insecurity of the Culture Minister’s continuing review of the BBC Royal Charter, announced plans for significant job cuts, re-distribution of some work centers away from London and the sell-off of non-core operations, notably commercial divisions. Unions asked for a moratorium on many of the plans, hoping for negotiations, specifically regarding the expected 3,780 redundancies but also outsourcing.

As usual, union and management counted the effect of Monday’s strike differently. The BBC said 38% of the work force participated in the walk-out. Unions said 95% of all programming was in some way disrupted. Some high profile show hosts crossed picket lines, some did not.

“I believe it is a price worth paying to secure a strong BBC in the future,” projected GD Thompson, who certainly sees masking criticism of the BBC as a bloated institution as a big-picture solution. Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum, he was not backing down from the restructuring plans: “We can’t make the need for change or its scale go away.”

“We’ve dealt a major blow in the fight to save the BBC from Mark Thompson’s savage cuts,” said National Union of Journalists General Secretary Jeremy Dear Monday night.

Both sides will meet today (Thursday) with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). Failing an agreement, which seems unlikely, the unions will stage another strike next Tuesday.

Radio France management and unions returned to bargaining last week, hoping to settle wage disputes by June 30th, after a strike brought a virtual shut-down to France Inter. Programs of France Culture, France Info and France Musique were also disrupted. The most recent strike began April 4th and lasted three weeks.

Radio France General Director Jean-Paul Cluzel, not unlike Mark Thompson, has been engaged in a massive re-organization of public radio channels since his appointment in 2004. Public television and radio are separated in France.

Unions representing Radio France employees cited, in addition to the ever-present wage issues, “crawling privatization” and out-sourcing as sources of stress. 

French broadcast technicians went out on strike in February 2003, followed a year later by journalists. The 2004 strike resulted in a 3% wage increase, but few other concessions. Cluzel’s predecessor, Jean-Marie Cavada, stepped down shortly after the 2004 strike, unable to regain the confidence of employees or Radio France directors.

Journalists at Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio staged an unofficial strike May 17th affecting radio and television programs. Wages were the point of contention in the one-day action.

Union employees at Portugal’s public broadcaster RTP went on strike in February over salary scales but also management demands for increased “flexibility” and “multi-tasking.”

Union technicians employed by Italian public broadcaster RAI forced a one-day cancellation of championship ski races in February with a wild-cat strike over wage issues.

Dutch public radio and television employees gained new collective agreements in 1999 after a series of rotating program black-outs following announcements saying “good employment terms mean good programs.” One of the most contentious issues, wages aside, was the use of temporary contracts, employing individuals for nine months, typically in September, laying them off in June, during which time they would be eligible of unemployment benefits, then re-hiring for another nine month contract again in September. Unemployment laws in the Netherlands changed at the beginning of 1999, making those temporary workers ineligible for benefits. A contentious relationship has continued between unions and management at Dutch public broadcastering organizations.

Wage issues loom not nearly as large, mostly, for public sector broadcasting unions. It’s security. Union leaders tend, mostly, toward the pragmatic. Most public broadcasting houses are under funding pressure, whether based on license fees, state support, advertising or a mix. As with all European public sector employment, pensions and training are issues.

And then there’s privatization. Administrators are under pressure to bend to demands of the market-place, allowing outsourcing but also creating revenue streams to augment funding, when allowed. No public sector broadcast manager is being asked to do less, other than to do with less. Flexibility becomes an issue, sometimes meaning downsizing or even eliminating departments, programs or projects but also moving resources, people, into different jobs.