BBC strikers angry after Today hosts break ranks

Listeners to BBC Radio 4 should not expect too much jolly banter in the Today studio on Monday morning. Two of the presenters, Evan Davis (above) and Sarah Montague, broke the journalists' 48-hour strike and presented the breakfast show on Saturday – much to the annoyance of their newsroom colleagues.

While BBC bosses and non-union members rolled up their sleeves and tried to produce scheduled programming in the face of sweeping strikes against pension reform, Davis and Montague helped them out by going into work on Saturday morning. They apparently avoided crossing the picket lines by arriving at 3:30am – before the pickets were up.

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said striking staff were upset at their action, especially after strikers had managed to keep the Today programme off air on Friday.

“Some of their colleagues will be very disappointed at their action, but it is always to be expected some people will make their own decisions,” said Dear.

It is not the first time that Davis, who also presents Dragons' Den on BBC2, has worked during a strike. He crossed a BBC picket line in 2005.

Davis and Montague were part of a small group of high-profile names who chose not to join the 48-hour strike called for midnight on Thursday by the National Union of Journalists on Thursday. Strike-breakers included Andrew Neil, Jonathan Dimbleby and BBC business editor Robert Peston.

Peston explained his stance on his blog, saying: “Management  at the BBC has handled the pensions issue clumsily and badly. But they have amended and improved the proposed pension changes, following intense pressure from staff.

“At a time when many public sector and private sector organisations are under financial pressure, I have taken the view that the latest offer is reasonable. So, as someone who is not a member of the union, I chose not to strike.”

Evan Davis had another reason for not striking. The Today show host, who is gay, wrote on Twitter that his boyfriend had been "worryingly enthusiastic" about a programme on birdlife which replaced the Today show on Friday.

Davis's boyfriend wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the break from normal service. One viewer responded to BBC director-general Mark Thompson’s blog with the comment that he and his wife had enjoyed the straightforward news service provided on BBC Breakfast TV “instead of the normal trite nonsense”.

Meanwhile, the strikers are now threatening to walk out again at Christmas as a way of getting back at their bosses who filled in on Friday and Saturday.  This time, bosses will have to work over the festive period if they want to keep scheduled news programmes going. ·