NUJ MEMBERS AT BBC Northern Ireland have announced a 24-hour strike that will commence on the first day of counting in the region’s local government elections.

Almost 83% of those who voted in a recent National Union of Journalists (NUJ) ballot backed strike action in opposition to cutbacks at Radio Foyle. 

The 24-hour walkout will begin at 12.15am on Friday, 19 May.

Voters go to the polls for Northern Ireland’s local council elections on Thursday, 18 May, with the count taking place on Friday and Saturday at centres across the region.

SDLP leader and Foyle MP Colum Eastwood has lent his support to NUJ members set to go on strike next week.

Eastwood said: “From the outset, the SDLP has warned that these cuts will have a devastating impact on local news coverage, particularly in Derry and the North West, and that they do not have the support of BBC staff or local people.

“People in Derry will not be treated as an afterthought. Despite repeated challenges to BBC senior management, we have yet to receive a satisfactory response or justification for the burden of reductions falling on important local programming.

“The SDLP supports the decision of NUJ staff and we will stand with them next Friday.”

Paul Siegert, NUJ national broadcasting organiser, said: “Members have been left with no option than to head to pickets in defence of their jobs and the much-loved programmes listeners tune into daily.

“Yet again, the BBC is pursuing savings and drastic changes at the expense of quality journalism it claims to pride itself on.

“The NUJ wants to reach a solution that resolves the dispute and asks the BBC to return to talks with a fair offer members can accept.”

Radio Foyle’s flagship morning show was axed last month and replaced with a half-hour news programme.

The NUJ said the corporation’s bid to save £2.3 million (€2.64 million) had resulted in 36 posts being cut, with the prospect of other potential job losses.

The union said the restructuring plans would impact resources and the ability to deliver quality programmes across Northern Ireland.

The BBC has said the reconfiguration is part of a strategy to invest in online services, including the iPlayer, and has insisted compulsory redundancies have been avoided.

The NUJ ballot result was announced last week.

Of 116 valid votes cast, 96 NUJ members in BBC NI said they were prepared to take part in strike action.

Almost 96%, 111 members, also backed industrial action short of strike.

Responding to the strike date announcement, a spokesman for BBC NI said: “We continue to engage constructively with staff and the trade unions in the interests of everyone involved and the audiences we serve.”

Some high profile media figures who were due to contribute to BBC NI’s local election coverage on Friday have signalled that they will no longer be fulfilling this role.

Taking to Twitter, Aoife Grace Moore and the Belfast Telegraph’s Allison Morris revealed that they were due to be working with BBC NI on Friday, but both have said they will not cross the picket line.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper