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NUJ Bristol Branch members will be joining the BBC picket line on Friday 5 November in Bristol, in support of staff who are fighting to defend their pensions.
The NUJ banner and branch members will be outside the main BBC building on Whiteladies Road from 8 a.m. until lunchtime, to show solidarity with striking colleagues.
Staff face losing tens of thousands of pounds over the course of their pension after they retire under a new BBC scheme which would cap pension increases at only 1% a year. Â NUJ members have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action.
Across the UK,  the BBC strike will last for 48 hours on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 November.
The NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Can you afford simply to 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 proposal.
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.”
Bristol Branch Chair Paul Breeden said: “We’re right behind our colleagues at the BBC. We will do everything we can to support them, because we understand what’s at stake. The NUJ has been calling this the ‘BBC pensions robbery’, and that’s exactly what it is.
“We hope as many members as possible will come and stand by us on the picket line on 5 November.”
Messages of support can be sent to campaigns@nuj.org.uk, and donations (cheques payable to NUJ, marked on the back “BBC strike hardship fund”) to General Secretary, NUJ, Headland House, 308 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP.
