British Broadcasting Corporation looked all set to go on a 48-hour stoppage of its programmes next week even as its top official insisted that the chaos caused by the first 24-hour strike was "a price worth paying" to push through his reforms.
"I clearly regret the fact that some programmes and services will be disrupted. I believe it is a price worth paying to secure a strong BBC in the future," director general Mark Thompson said.
But union leaders insisted that a longer stoppage, scheduled for next Tuesday, would go ahead unless Thompson agreed to "meaningful negotiations". The next stoppages are scheduled for May 31 and June 1, with the fourth strike day yet to be disclosed.
The three unions behind yesterday's strike claimed the strike was the "most successful in BBC's history" as it affected 95 per cent of all production activity with between 13,000 and 15,000 employees not reporting for duty, The Guardian newspaper reported.
But the BBC claimed that 10,500 staff out of a total of 17,000 expected to work had turned up. Thompson seemed determined to implement his plans to cut around 4,000 jobs and slash 15 per cent from budgets in an effort to save 355 million pound sterlings annually.
In the news division and some regional newsrooms, only a handful came to work but in other departments like marketing and human resources, more than 90 per cent worked, the network said.
Executives hope that the employees' anger will die down and they will lose the stomach for two more days without pay. However, Luke Crawley, national official of the broadcasting union Bectu, told the paper "They'll get a big shock next week. People are determined to get something out of this."
Every BBC service was affected yesterday but those that rely on live programmes and news coverage such as Radio 4 and 5 Live were the worst hit. Listeners were treated to a day of repeats, with jazz, comedy and documentary.
"This is the worst disruption at the BBC for over a decade." Paul Mason, who works on 'Newsnight' and represents another of the striking unions, the National Union of Journalists, said.
"It matters because broadcasting excellence, programme quality and journalistic integrity - all of the values the BBC strives for - are at risk if these cuts go ahead as proposed," Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, told The Guardian.
Hardly any big name news presenters turned up, with John Humphrys, Jeremy Paxman, Fiona Bruce and Natasha Kaplinsky among those absent.
'News 24' presenter Susan Osman presented several news bulletins throughout the day, including the 'One O'Clock News', while Akhtar Khan from 'Fast Track' anchored 'BBC Breakfast' and BBC World's Stephen Cole presented the 'Six O'Clock News'.
The staff protested the cuts proposed by Thompson and senior executives saying they will mean "the beginning of the end for the BBC" and will reduce quality while undermining the case of the licence fee.
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