BBC Scabs

Applauded of Tunbridge Wells | 10.06.2009 10:19 | Other Press | Workers' Movements

The BBC website front page reads "beat the strike"

In a clear violation of the rule that the BBC "may not be politically or industrially biased"; the BBC are encouraging London commuters to "beat" the RMT's industrial action today.

Applauded of Tunbridge Wells
Homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk

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Thanks

10.06.2009 10:39

I have always used the train and tube for getting to work but today I tried the car and it was great, took me about the same time and was much cheaper. Thanks RMT I'll be avoiding public transport in the future for commuting.

BBC worker

How to get around

10.06.2009 10:45

Thats what the link is about - nothing overtly political in that, is there?

worker

Why it is political

10.06.2009 11:49

It's true that the article is about how to get around. The intention of the article is to help people to get around during today's strike. It is to reduce the disruption caused by the strike. The power that workers (those of us who add value by our labour) have is to withdraw our labour and cause disruption. Reducing the disruption we can cause therefore reduces the power of the workers. That is why they talk about "beating" us; their intention is to reduce our power. If we want a safe and environmental transport system then we need strong unions acting across the transport industry. This is an industrial dispute and, (as always), the BBC is not acting impartially.
During the recent wildcat strikes in the oil industry the BBC showed workers saying; "We can't work with foreigners" editing out the rest of the sentence; "because we've been segregated". In the miners strike the BBC reversed the footage of the Battle of Orgreave to make the strikers look more violent.

Solidarity Action

Maybe if RMT just shut down BANK tube station& Canary Wharf, the message will

10.06.2009 12:05

get across& make everyone laugh. Maybe afew other stations could be added like Westminster.
Then there would be even more overall support & on the day people would be encouraged not to serve any bad apples at the top of the pyramid.

Tactical labour-work strikes, rather than collateral labour strikes which do piss off alot of good people sometimes especially with corporate media bias

Green syndicalist

Love it!

10.06.2009 12:43

The idea of selectively inconveniencing certain groups of people in London is a great idea. Transport for those who need it, hassle and taxi fares for those who can afford it. It kind of negates the point of a strike though (see above).

Tacticus

Yeah, good ideas but kind of missing the point...

10.06.2009 14:05

Selective striking to affect those in certain geographic locations is great, but the point of this strike is as follows;
1. Safeguarding jobs (PAY ATTENTION TO THIS BIT SCABS DOING OVERTIME TODAY / TOMORROW) - LU/TFL want to renege on the agreement regarding compulsory redundancies, TfL and LUL are looking at cutting up to 4000 posts, so your average tube worker who earns a living wage in London, takes daily abuse from twats in suits (who swear blind that they 'pay your wages'), works extreme shifts AND has to wear a nylon uniform would then have the further worry of whether the powers that be might decide that the tube be better run by security guards, contract drivers, and repaired and maintained by cheap contract labourers who couldnt give a toss whether Tarquin from Clapham or Camilla from Hampstead get home in one piece.
Oh, and before you get excited about how much tube staff earn, remember that there are 123 tube bosses earning over £100,000 a year plus bonuses. And the rumour that there is a bonus payment being made this month is rubbish.

2. A 5 year pay deal linked to deflation - seriously, would you agree to that?

3. Bullying and victimising staff - this has been an issue for ever on LU, but now the higher echelons on management are supporting and encouraging poor performing managers to break the regulations that LU imposed and workers worked to - take the recent strike over bullying and victimisation at Willesden Green - the manager in question was on the front page of the evening standard an Dec 2005 for causing a strike at North Greenwich train depot where he was employed as a manager...oh, and that was for bullying and victimisation.
The hounding of staff on the Victoria line, down to the same thing....

I have heard radio reporters talking to the public, and to hear bleating on that 'i had to wait seven minutes for a train' is pathetic...7 minutes will seem like a fond memory when your local station is understaffed, your tube train (if it arrives) is unsafe and has'nt been cleaned for a month, and TFL are stinging you even more for your travelcard.

Solidarity.

Spotty Dog
mail e-mail: spottydogcollective@googlemail.com

complaints

10.06.2009 15:48

i have just spend a couple of minutes filling in an online complaint form about the bbc's bias in their reporting on this strike. it really doesn't take long and it seems worth a try if only because i know the rightwing bigots always flood them with complaints when they perceive bias, and the bbc claims to listen (?)...
its their at the bottom of their website, you just click on the word "complaints" and its self-explanatory from their on.
personally i never use public transport on a strike day and i always make effort to find out the real reasons for the strike so that i can let others around me know. they don't strike for fun, and it isn't even always for pay or conditions type reasons (although i support them when it is). for example few members of the public in london realised that the recent strike on the victoria line was actually about PASSENGER SAFETY.
tube workers work hard in tough conditions and get treated shockingly badly by their employers on every level. they deserve our support.

not a scab

No story here, please move along.

10.06.2009 16:43

> In a clear violation of the rule that the BBC "may not be politically or industrially biased"; the BBC are encouraging London commuters to "beat" the RMT's industrial action today.

They're trying to help people get to work, which most will have to do despite this strike. That's entirely reasonable for a public service broadcaster. They're not encouraging anyone to break strikes or cross picket lines, just help them go about their daily lives.

Concerned Pedestrian

Me too!! ;-)

10.06.2009 21:35

I also complained to the BBC about their bias and undermining of industrial action in a democratic system.

Lay it on 'em dudes and dudettes!!!

a-complainin' we will go,
complainin' we will go,
altogether now
complainin' we will go ...

tra-la-la

KopyKat

Most stupid comment heard during the strike

10.06.2009 22:01

No prizes but there was some crackers like

Comment 1: Bus driver announces to bus passengers "If you are too squashed on the bus then blame the RMT"

Comment 2: "I wish i was on £35,000 a year, why don't they give me the job and I'll sign a no strike deal"
errm...if that was the case I doubt you will be on £35,000 a year for too long.

muppets!

The view from today is that most people are against the strike? it shows just how much solidarity has been lost since everyone acts as a consumer class rather than a working class,

Support the strikers! Fuck Aslef Scabs!

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pretty good

11.06.2009 00:32

35K a year.... f****** hell.
And they don't sack you when your on strike?

you lucky lucky lucky b*******s

stove

Broken Biscuit Corporation.

11.06.2009 08:36

The BBC propaganda is usually somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. There is no attempt to be impartial in the reporting, a case of support the establishment as they permit Auntie to promote their line and always have done.

They rely on mugs to pay the Licence fee which enables them to live comfortable lives no matter what. No accountability and two fingers at those who oppose them.

Best way not to have a TV as nothing but crap on it anyway. Why pay to prop them up?

What we need is pirate TV like the old days of pirate radio, freedom of the airwaves.

Jolly Roger

Has it really come to this?

11.06.2009 10:32

That radicals are so piss-poor in this country we see comments like this, even on Indymedia: "They're trying to help people get to work, which most will have to do despite this strike."

What's up with you FFS, stay in bed! Apart from essential services, such as hospital staff, the rest of you are talking about scabbing!

Good luck to the RMT

Wat Tyler

How....

11.06.2009 11:31

"What's up with you FFS, stay in bed! Apart from essential services, such as hospital staff, the rest of you are talking about scabbing!"

How is it "scabbing" this is only a tube workers strike, other people will be sacked if they don't go into work.

PEACE

What is Scabbing?

11.06.2009 12:11

"How is it "scabbing" this is only a tube workers strike, other people will be sacked if they don't go into work" is a legitimate question. One answer is that it is in the interest of all working people for the strike to be as effective as possible. A tube strike is less effective than a general transport strike. That is why general or industrial unions, or cooperation between unions, can be more effective. Ineffective unions mean shit pay, shit conditions, shit safety and a shit system.

Alexander Berkman put it:

"I have seen, for instance, bricklayers on a New York skyscraper lay down their tools, while the carpenters and iron workers on the same job remained at work. The strike did not concern them, their unions said, because they belonged to another trade; or they could not join the strikers because that would be breaking the contract their organizations had made with the boss. 50 they kept at work on the building where their brother union men had struck. That is, they were actually scabbing and helping to break the strike of the bricklayers. Because, for sooth, they belonged to another craft, to a different trade! As if the struggle of labor against capital were a matter of craft and not the common cause of the whole working class!

"Another example: the coal miners of Pennsylvania are on strike, and the coal miners of Virginia are taxed to help the strikers with money. The Virginia miners remain at work because they are 'bound by contract'. They keep on mining coal, so that the coal magnates can supply the market and lose nothing by the strike of the Pennsylvania miners. Sometimes they even gain by making the strike an excuse for raising the price of coal. Can you wonder that the Pennsylvania miners lose the strike, since their own fellow miners scab on them? But if the workers understood their true interests if they would be organized not by craft or trade but by industries, so that the whole industry - and if necessary the whole working class - could strike as one man, would any strike be lost?"

Educate
Homepage: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/comanarchism/whatis_11.html

Sad

11.06.2009 15:03

"How is it "scabbing" this is only a tube workers strike, other people will be sacked if they don't go into work"

Throw a 'sickie' you lickspittle!

Jack

Some of us already throw plenty of sickies, thanks

11.06.2009 16:40

> Throw a 'sickie' you lickspittle!

You can only throw so many in the one year!

Slacker

Had enough?

11.06.2009 18:55

Yeah, shame the Tolpuddle Martyrs didn't think of that one.

Lazybones

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