Report from the BBC world service picket line

Striking BBC world service journalists were celebrating taking all the station's news programmes off air today.
While strike-breakers were able to compile short bulletins the longer Radio 4 style news shows were all scrapped and replaced with pre-recorded repeats.
Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have walked out for 48 hours over changes to their pension scheme which will see some people have their pay-out cut be a quarter.
At lunchtime around 70 journalists and their supporters rallied on the steps of the world service's Bush House headquarters in London.
They heard speeches from NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear, world service newsroom rep Mike Workman, and George Binette bringing solidarity from the Camden branch of the local government union UNISON.
Pickets were in good spirits and pleased with the public reaction to their dispute.
Although the BBC pension scheme covers all the workers only the journalists are on strike.
Members of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph, and Theatre Union (BECTU), the BBC electricians' union Unite, the Musicians' Union, and the actors' union Equity voted to accept the new scheme after some changes were won by the threat of industrial action.
However - as reported exclusively on The Workers United - some BECTU activists have swapped to the NUJ to support the strike.
In Newcastle tweets from the picket line reported that a significant number of BECTU members have refused to cross. The same story was coming from Southampton and Cornwall.
Across the UK the NUJ was getting support from members of other unions - and comedians Alan Davies and Robin Ince tweeted that they wouldn't be crossing picket lines to appear on BBC programmes.
Belinda Affat, a Unite rep at The Guardian print centre, visited the world service picket line and said: "It was very uplifting to talk to the strikers. I would encourage other trades unionists to visit their local BBC centre and offer support."
Picket lines and messages of support
Pictures and updates from the NUJ

BBC strikers would welcome visits and messages of support

Members of the National Union of Journalists are on strike over massive cuts to their pensions.
Background
Anyone who wants to support the BBC strike or talk to NUJ members for more information about the dispute can go to picket lines across the UK.
There will be pickets at:
London – Television Centre at White City, Bush House on Aldwych and Millbank, next to parliament.
BBC Scotland offices Glasgow, Edinburgh, Shetland, Orkney, Aberdeen and Inverness. BBC Cardiff, BBC Bristol, BBC Belfast. BBC Manchester, BBC Merseyside, BBC Lancashire in Blackburn, BBC Tunbridge Wells, BBC Southampton, BBC Nottingham, BBC Leeds, BBC Hull, BBC Newcastle, BBC Birmingham, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Lincolnshire, BBC Hereford and Worcester, BBC Monitoring at Caversham, BBC Jersey, BBC Stoke, BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Spotlight in Exeter, BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Look East, BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
NUJ members striking outside the UK are expected to picket in Kabul, Washington, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles and Istanbul.
NUJ pictures and updates
There are rallies on pickets lines today in London and Glasgow.
TV Centre, Wood Lane, at noon.
BBC Scotland, Pacific Quay, Glasgow at 11.30am.
BBC World Service, Bush House, Aldwych, London at 1.30pm.
Send messages of support to campaigns@nuj.org.uk

Feel free to add details of any other rallies and specific times and addresses of pickets in the comments box.

National and local journalists driven to action over pay freezes and job cuts

Members of the National Union of Journalists are planning industrial action at newspapers across the South of England as anger boils over in the face of pay freezes and job cuts.
Journalists at The Independent and Independent on Sunday voted by 105 votes to one at a chapel (workplace branch) meeting in London yesterday to organise a ballot for indistrial action over a three year pay freeze and increased workloads.
NUJ members at Newsquest Southampton have called two 48-hour strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday November 9 and 10, and again on Tuesday and Wednesday November 16 and 17.
The dispute is over the continuing pay freeze at Newsquest.
On the first day the of action, the strikers will be protesting outside a Press Complaints Commission (PCC) open day event at Southampton Art Gallery where their editor is a guest speaker.
Journalists at Newsquest titles in Sussex - including the Brighton Argus - are also balloting for industrial action as reported on The Workers United.
Tomorrow more than 4,000 BBC journalists start a series of strikes over cuts to their pensions.
COMMENT:
It is vital that amid all the talk of the public sector trade unions organise and fight at penny pinching private sector companies.
These newspaper journalists are on the front line and other trade unionists can find out how to support them at the union's website.

Support needed for jailed female Colombian trades unionists

The campaigning organisation Justice for Colombia is calling for urgent action to free two female trades unionists who have been in jail without trial for well over a year in the Latin American state.
There are hundreds of political prisoners in Columbia but five are being highlighted in a campaign of letter writing to the UK foreign secretary,
They include trades unionists Rosalba Gaviria and Liliany Obando.
More details and an e-card to send to William Hague



Red Pepper magazine on Latin America

Seafarers to protest outside Tesco on the Isle of Man

A shipping union has accused Tesco and Shoprite of undermining Isle of Man ferry services by switching their freight to a company using low-paid eastern European seafarers.
Nautilus International, a union for maritime professionmals in the UK and Netherlands, has written to the two big retailers urging them to reverse their decision.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company uses the freight business to provide a subsided passenger route to the Island .
They are now facing competition from Estonian-flagged vessels run by a firm called Mezeron.
Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson said:"It is wholly unjustifiable that competition is introduced on the basis of ‘social dumping’ and undermining an established company that has a demonstrable commitment to decent working conditions and the employment and training of Manx and British seafarers."
RMT, Nautilus and Unite members will be handing out leaflets outside Tesco at Douglas on the Isle of Man on Saturday November 6.
Read the full Nautilus press release.

Union apologises for saying photographer was involved in "terrorist activity"

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has been forced to apologise for mistakenly suggesting one its own members had been involved in "terrorist activity".
A document sent to the Home Office and published on the union's website said that photogrepher Marc Vallee was prevented from covering a protest at the Greek embassy in London in 2008 "for reasons of terrorist activity".
The error was in a submission about how the Terrorism Act 2000 has been misused against journalists.
A report of the original incident and the full apology to Vallee are on the NUJ's website.
Ironically - as Vallee points out on his blog - he is one of the founders of the I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist campaign which defends the right to take pictures in public places.

Firefighter who was run over by strike-breakers to speak at London meeting

A picket who was run over by a strike-breaking fire engine earlier this week will speak at a public meeting in London on Thursday (November 4).
Ian Leahair, from the national executive of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), was hit on Monday evening - as reported on The Workers United.
He was already scheduled to speak on Thursday with Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), at an event called by the Southwark Save Our Services campaign.
And Leahair has told organisers he is “sore and tender” but will be there.
Becky Branford, an NUJ rep at the BBC who lives in Southwark, will also be speaking
The meeting is at the Salvation Army Hall, Princess Street, Elephant and Castle, SE1 6HH, at 7pm on Thursday November 4.
On Friday November 5 London firefighters will strike over changes to shift hours and BBC journalists will strike over pension cuts.

The Workers United exclusive: Activists swap unions to join BBC pension strike