Strikes at the BBC

Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have gone on strike today at the BBC, causing disruption to many news programmes.

The dispute stems from a row over pension schemes at the corporation, with the union fighting a cap on increases in pensionable salary at one per cent.

BBC management argue that pension discipline is necessary to plug a large and growing pension deficit.

The NUJ had previously planned to disrupt BBC coverage of the Conservative conference and the spending review, leading to allegations of political bias and an extraordinary intervention by many of the corporation's most well-known journalists - arguing the strike threatened the BBC's reputation for impartiality.

The strikes were postponed to November, with the first beginning today and lasting 48 hours and a second 2-day industrial action from November 15th.