JOURNALISTS and technical staff at STV will strike over pay, with the action affecting coverage of the Scottish election results today.
Around 100 workers will form picket lines outside the STV offices in Glasgow (Pacific Quay) and Aberdeen (Craigshaw Business Park) from 8:30am.
Please share solidarity messages with campaigns@nuj.org.uk or join them in-person if you’re in the area.
In March, members of both the NUJ and Bectu at STV voted for the industrial action over management’s decision to offer a 0% pay award, in one of the first strike ballots to be held under the new Employment Rights Act.
NUJ members also went on strike as part of a separate dispute in January, braving cold weather and heavy snow to oppose damaging cuts to jobs and local news.
Nick McGowan-Lowe, NUJ Scotland organiser, said: “It’s frustrating that due to the stubbornness of STV management, on the biggest news day in Scotland for years, Scottish viewers, listeners and readers won’t be able to hear what some of the most well-respected journalists, reporters and producers in Scottish broadcasting have to say.
“Our members would much rather be reporting the election results than standing on picket lines, but they have been driven to this action by management’s indifference as to how overworked and underpaid they are.
“CEO Rufus Radcliffe has once again failed to grasp the opportunity to end this dispute, and it is personally embarrassing for him that STV will be broadcasting reruns instead of the biggest news story in Scotland.”
Vote counting in the Scottish Parliament election will commence this morning, after Scotland went to the polls yesterday.
Ballot boxes will be opened at 9am at designated counting centres across the county and the first constituencies are expected to be declared around midday.
If English council results are a guide, it promises to be a long and difficult day for the beleaguered Labour party in particular. Will spectacular Reform advances be mirrored north of the border, or can the SNP deliver an unlikely outright majority?
All will become clear later today.