BBC journalists will hold strike action to coincide with the results of Parliamentary by-elections later this month.
The National Union of Journalists has announced a new 24 hour strike will take place from July 20th at 11am.
The industrial action is as a result of planned cuts to local radio output. This will see redundancies, a reduction in shows and shared regional content.
“The union continues to talk to BBC management and we have made it consistently clear that there are alternative ways for the BBC to achieve its ambitions on Digital First – ones that do not come at the cost of local radio; that preserve jobs and livelihoods; do not worsen current working patterns for staff across BBC Local; and protect genuinely local services,” stated Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ General Secretary.
“There are 5.4m loyal local BBC listeners who treasure the service local radio provides and tune into linear radio.”
The strike will involve journalists working in radio, television and online.
Ahead of the last action in June, the BBC stated:
“We understand this is a difficult period of change for many colleagues and we will continue to support everyone affected by the plans to strengthen our local online services across news and audio.
“Our goal is to deliver a local service across TV, radio and online that offers more value to more people in more local communities. While the plans do impact on individual roles, we are maintaining our overall investment in local services and expect our overall level of editorial staffing across England to remain unchanged.”
