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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Leigh Holmwood and Jason Deans

BBC parliament coverage faces technicians' strike

The BBC's live coverage of the state opening of parliament next Wednesday faces disruption from a 24-hour strike by TV news technicians.

Technical staff within BBC News will strike for 24 hours from 10pm on November 14, broadcasting union Bectu confirmed today after a meeting to decide what industrial action to take.

Bectu has targeted the state opening of parliament, scheduled to be covered live on BBC1 between 10.30am and 12.15pm on November 15, and the network's breakfast, 1pm, 6pm and 10pm news bulletins also face disruption by the strike.

In addition, BBC rolling news channel News 24 could be affected as news production staff deal with live news feeds and give technical support.

Union members in BBC News voted for action by 95% in a ballot last week in a dispute over new rota patterns, which they say have been forced upon them.

"Given the 95% majority in favour of strike action, we are expecting solid support from our members involved," Bectu supervisory official Luke Crawley said.

Bectu has previously said it wanted to cause as "much disruption as possible".

Union executives met today to agree on the action, which must take place within seven days of notifying the BBC.

Bectu has also formally notified the BBC today that it is planning further strike action on November 23 and November 24 - although the duration of these stoppages is yet to be confirmed.

The dispute arose after new rotas were introduced that would see shifts cut back from 12 hours to between eight and 10 hours, although total working hours will not be reduced. Staff say the result is that they will have to work more shifts.

A BBC spokesman previously said: "We have contingency plans and we will work towards zero disruption for our audiences."

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

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