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London faces a wave of bus and Tube strikes that could cause chaos for millions of passengers as unions walkout over pay and conditions
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Today is cancelled at deserted White City
By Valentine Low, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 23.05.05Today is off," said the man from the union with evident satisfaction in his voice. "And Breakfast is off." The BBC's two flagship morning shows - one on radio, one on TV - removed from the airwaves: Tony Lennon, president of broadcast union Bectu, had good reason to look pleased with the way the strike was going.
As dawn broke today, BBC Television Centre had the look of a deserted ship, a steel and glass monolith with scarcely a soul going in and out. Even in the early hours there is usually a noticeable level of activity as overnight staff and contributors come and go. But as the sun rose over White City this morning the place seemed eerily empty.
One by one, those staff who had decided to work braved the picket line, explaining with an apologetic shrug that they simply could not afford not to go in - or striding past with fixed expression as they tried hard to avoid all contact with strikers.
A national BBC strike is big news; the BBC, even in today's rather depleted state, felt honour bound to cover it.
A BBC reporter and cameraman turned up to report on the activities of the picket line: they filmed the pickets, while Paul the picket filmed them with the little digital video camera he had brought along for videoing strike breakers. It turned out the reporter, Ben Ando, knew something about job threats and restructuring: he has been working freelance ever since he was made redundant by ITN last December.
The strikers were more than happy to pass the time of day with him, discussing the politics of industrial action and the nature of television management.
But Tony Lennon from Bectu was having none of it. "Are you a BBC crew?" he asked them. "Well look chaps, you're meant to be on strike." The reporter's protestations that his day's work had been prebooked and his union had advised that he honour the booking cut little ice with Mr Lennon.
The BBC crew would have to go elsewhere for their soundbite.
As the morning progressed there was a steady trickle of strike breakers and managers going in, but the strikers knew they had already made the impact they were after.
"If Breakfast was going out, we would have to be in there," said Paul Garcia, gesturing behind him. He works in lighting at the television news studios, and was confident enough to predict that without the regular crew to operate the specialist equipment, there was no way the management was able to bring out a live news programme.
Nick Serpell, Father of the Chapel for the National Union of Journalists at News 24, told with some glee of a presenter at the station who had been doing the overnight shift. Apparently she has not been with the BBC long, and the corporation was confident that she would be working last night. unfortunate that we are having such impact on their programmes. But they need to understand that this strike is not about one day of poor programming, it is about the 10 years of poor programming which is what you will get if Mark Thompson makes these cuts."
Mr Thompson, the BBC director-general, would of course say that it his strategy is about the very future and survival of the corporation. And that argument will continue long after the pickets have gone back to work.
