Support the strikers

We are gearing up for strikes at the BBC - I've been doing reps meetings and drafting strike leaflets and bulletins most of today.

Here's some of the appeal that's gone out to NUJ branches

Support NUJ members fighting for fair pensions at BBC

Can you afford to simply give away £100,000, £25,000 or even ‘just’ £10,000? Of course not.

But those are the kinds of sums every journalist faces losing under the BBC’s latest pension proposal.

It’s unfair and unacceptable. For all BBC staff it means paying more, working longer or getting significantly lower pensions. In some cases, all three!

BBC journalists are not asking for higher pensions. They are not even saying they wouldn’t consider paying more or working longer for a fair pension settlement.

That means a deal based on the real deficit in the scheme, not speculative and questionable figures.

It means a pension which does not lose a significant part of its value every single year for the rest of their lives – which is what will happen under the current proposals.
And it should be a deal that means what has been promised to them - which they have already paid for - is protected.

The current offer fails those tests and it
fails BBC staff.
That’s why they’ve been left with no choice but to take
industrial action on 5 and 6 November and 15 and 16 November. They can’t afford
not to…and they need YOUR support

How you can help:
Make a donation. Make cheques payable to NUJ (marked on back BBC Strike hardship fund) and send to General Secretary, NUJ, Headland House, 308 Gray’s Inn Road,
London WC1X 8DP.
Send messages of support. Messages should be sent to campaigns@nuj.org.uk
Join the picket lines – visit your local BBC centre to join the picket on 5 and 6 November.
For further details of picket times/places contact campaigns@nuj.org.uk
Invite a speaker – contact your local BBC rep or campaigns@nuj.org.uk to arrange a speaker for your next meeting
Keep up to date on developments – see www.nuj.org.uk for the latest news of meetings and action.

As part of the mobilising I did a rally in Manchester on Saturday and spoke to the 300-strong Education Activists Network conference in London on Sunday

I also found time to speak out about David Cameron's latest jibes at BBC journalists.

This morning I visited an FBU picket line to offer my solidarity with them and wrote my Tribune column about media attacks on striking workers.